Antiochian Greek Christians
Founders of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America (left to right: then-Archdeacon Anthony Bashir, Metropolitan Gerasimos Messara, and Archimandrite Victor Abo-Assaley) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Estimated 4.3 million | |
| Religions | |
| Christianity (Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and Melkite Greek Catholic Church) | |
| Languages | |
| Vernacular: Majority Arabic (Levantine Arabic), Western Neo-Aramaic in Maaloula, Turkish in Turkey Liturgical: Koine Greek (historical), Classical Arabic (current) and Classical Syriac (historical) |
Antiochian Greek Christians (also known as Rūm) are an ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group native to the Levant. The majority of its members identify as Arab, and some of the members reject the Arab label, and identify as Greek. They are either members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and they have ancient roots in what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which includes the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch—one of the holiest cities in Eastern Christianity). Many of their descendants now live in the global Near Eastern Christian diaspora. They primarily speak Levantine Arabic, with Maaloula near Damascus being one of the few places where a Western Aramaic dialect is still spoken.