Melkite Greek Catholic Church - Name of The Church

Name of The Church

Melkite, from the Syriac word malkā for "King", was originally a pejorative term for Middle-Eastern Christians who accepted the authority of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and the Byzantine Emperor, a term applied to them by non-Chalcedonians. Of the Chalcedonian churches, Greek Catholics continue to use the term, while Eastern Orthodox do not.

The Greek element signifies the Byzantine Rite heritage of the church, the liturgy used by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The term Catholic signifies the church's acknowledgment of the authority of the Pope and implies participation in the worldwide church. According to Church tradition, the Melkite Church of Antioch is the "oldest continuous Christian community in the world".

In Arabic, the official language of the church, it is called ar-Rūm al-Kathūlīk (Arabic: الروم الكاثوليك‎). The Arabic word "Rūm" means Greek from the Greek word "Romioi" by which the Byzantine Greeks identified themselves, deriving from the name of their land which they called Romania, (Greek: Ρωμανία) or New Rome, (Latin: Nova Roma Greek: Νέα Ρώμη). The name literally means "Roman Catholic", but this refers to the Byzantine Greek heritage associated with the city of "New Rome", i.e. Constantinople.