Honoring our martyrs
Centuries of Persecution
For more than two thousand years, our people have endured persecution, exile, and massacre. From the earliest centuries of Christianity to the present day, wave after wave of violence sought to erase us from our land, our faith, and our memory. For fourteen centuries in particular, Islamic rule and its heirs have inflicted forced conversions, massacres, and displacement upon our communities. Each century, each generation, has left graves and scars. And yet, we survived. The survival of the Maronite Nation is not an accident—it is the result of faith, courage, and an unbreakable will to endure.
Making Memory Eternal
It is now our duty to make this memory eternal. Words fade, witnesses pass away, but archives remain. The Maronite Massacres Archive will gather documents, testimonies, books, images, films, and scholarly studies into one living repository. This is not a collection of tragedies for pity—it is a monument of truth that no enemy can deny. Every massacre must be named, every martyr remembered, every attempt at our erasure recorded with precision. In a world that seeks to bury our history, we will dig it out, preserve it, and publish it for all generations. Memory is our shield, and archiving is our weapon against oblivion.
Identity Through Remembrance
This work is not only about the past, it is about identity. By remembering Kafno and every other massacre, we affirm who we are: a people chosen to carry faith and freedom against centuries of oppression. To forget is to betray those who died; to remember is to honor them and to teach our children pride in their heritage. The Archive will grow into the largest center in the world dedicated to Christian memory in the East, with its own mission, staff, and permanence. It will stand as an international reference, reminding the world that the Maronite Nation does not beg for recognition—it demands justice, it preserves its identity, and it proclaims to the future: we remain, we rise.
From the 7th Century to Today
Persecution of the Lebanese Christians
Origins of Persecution
From the Arab–Muslim conquest of the Levant (634–638), which drove Christian communities into the mountains, through the Mamluk sack of Tripoli (1289) and the Kisrawan genocide of (1292–1305), this era forged the identity of Lebanon’s Christians as a people forced to defend their land.
Imperial Strangulation
Begin with the basics now. Our Syriac Language Center is under construction. Soon it will offer free programs from beginner to advanced, Start today with the available resources and come back often for updates. We encourage every parent to teach their kids Syriac today.
KAFNO, the Genocide
During World War I, Mount Lebanon — overwhelmingly Christian — was deliberately cut off from food by the Ottoman land blockade while Allied naval blockade and locust swarms finished the job; famine killed up to half the population, entire families vanished, children died in the streets, and this collective trauma is remembered by our people as Kafno: genocide by starvation.
The War on the Christians of Lebanon
Armed groups backed by foreign regimes targeted Christian areas with massacres, kidnappings, expulsions and sieges—Damour, Aishiyeh, church killings, and the decapitation of Christian leadership—while the narrative of a “civil war” tried to hide that Christians themselves were the intended target.
Silent Erasure
After 1990, open slaughter turned into controlled collapse: occupation, arrests, assassinations, demographic pressure, economic ruin, and forced emigration all worked toward the same outcome—remove Christians from power, scatter them from their land, and make their disappearance look natural.