Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Antioch (Fides Service) – Antioch on the Oronte River was the cradle of early the early Christian communities mentioned in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Here for the first time the disciples of Jesus came to be known as Christians. Today where Christian charity (sharing) first began, it is still the rule for daily life, says Capuchin Father Domenico Bertogli on mission in this area.
Today in the same district where those first disciples lived, shared and gathered for prayer – says Fr Bertogli - a Christian community composed of about ten Catholic families and a larger number of Arab speaking Greek Orthodox Christians meets to share the faith and grow in spirit, nourishing themselves on the Word of God and the Bread of Life. Among them also a few Muslims anxious to know and to learn.
In the early Christian times Antioch, capital of the Roman province of Syria, was the third most important city of the Empire after Rome and Alexandria, with almost half a million people. Today it is a town of 200,000. Thanks to help from abroad, particularly from Italy from the Centro di Cooperazione dei Cappuccini Emiliani of san Martino in Rio, the local Christian communities have social and pastoral initiatives to help local Christians remain here, because many have found themselves forced to emigrate for economic reasons.(PA (Fides Service 14/5/2003 EM lines 22 Words: 250)
