Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-06
BENEDlCTINE ABBOT
VISITS LOS ANGELES
COMES FROM THE MOUNT OF
OLIVES, JERUSALEM
Prominent Member of Catholic Order
Intrusted with Large Work in
Educating Native Syrians
for Priesthood

Abbot Gariador of the Monastery Of
st. Benedict on the Mount of Olives,
Jerusalem, who is a visitor in Los An
geles, is one of the prominent members
of the Benedictine order and has been
intrusted with large work in educat-
ing native Syrians for the priesthood.
Abbot Gariador, who is a brother of
Father Leo, superior of the Benedictine
monastery at Montebello, is a man Of
medium height, with a full jet-black
beard just touched with gray, and
speaks with a slight accent, being Il
native of France.
The abbot, who has the title of right
reverend, lives on the Mount of Olives,
famed in Biblical history, overlooking
the ancient part of the city of Jerusa-
lem. This is his first visit to Los An
geles, which he says somewhat re-
sembles the Holy Land in climate.
Abbot Gariador has been in Jerusa-
lem for eight years and speaks the
Arabic language. He left there in
January for years tour of Europe
and America to raise funds to carry
on the work of his order, and was re-
ceived by the pope, following which
he came to America. He expects to
remain in Los Angeles about one month
and will speak Sunday at the Church
Of the Blessed Sacrament, Hollywood.
In speaking of conditions in Palestine
Abbot Gariador said:
Three Distinct Churches
"There are in the Asiatic part of the
Ottoman empire three distinct
churches, corresponding to the three
Christian natiopalities predominating
in these regions. They are--if we ex-
cept the Latin Catholics-the Syriac
church, the Greek church and the Ar
menian; each one of these dating from
apostolic times and using in their
liturgy their respective national idioms
Each of these is again subdivided in a
certain manner of offshoots with their
own peculiar liturgy.
Unfortunately most of these
churches, so prosperous in ancient
times, have been now for centuries
cut off from the see of Peter and they
no more receive from the fountain-head
that abundance of life which flows over
those who remained faithful. In the
course of the last hundred years the
Roman pontiffs have had the consola-
tion of seeing goodly number of these
unfortunates come back to the center
of unity, so much so that now there eX :
lists in each separate rite a Catholic
hierarchy, side by side with the schis .
matte priests and bishops. However,
the number of dissidents exceeds yet
by far that of the faithful under bish-
ops approved by the holy see.
GAS the Benedictine work in Jerusa-
lem has for it's special object the Syriac
church it has many claims on our SYM
pathy. From the fact that this church
has kept to this day as its liturgical
idiom the Syriac, or Syro-Chaldaic,
that is, the identical language which
our Lord and his mother spoke, its
venerable antiquity is placed beyond
the possibility of doubt
Four Rites in Syriac Church
"In this Syriac church there are
again four distinct rites-the Maronite
in the Lebanon, the Syro- Chaldaic in
Chaldea, the Syro-M Malabar in southern
India, and the Syrian rite proper in
Syria and Mesopotamia. The first three
of these rites have already begun to
see better days, thanks to the exer-
tions of the Jesuits and Lazarists in
Lebanon, the Dominicans, Capuchins
and Carmelites in Chaldea, and the
Carmelites on the coast of Malabar
1.-THE Syriac church proper, less ia
vored until now, was only waiting un-
til some religious order would under
take for it the work of regeneration
of which the other six rites have so
largely benefited. AS a matter of fact,
the Maronites are all Catholics; the
MalabarS are also mostly Catholics;
on the contrary, most of the Syriacs
are schismatics, hardly 10000 of them
ranging themselves under the Catholic
Syrian patriarch, now Lord Ignatius
Ephrem II, Rahmani, whilst 900 dis
sidents, commonly called Jacobites,
obey different chiefs. 1t must be said
though, that since the restoration of
the Catholic hierarchy, nearly a CEN
tury ago, the number of the faithful is
rising constantly, If slowly on account
of the small number of workers among
them"
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