This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Arabic. (September 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Arabic article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|ar|بكركي}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Bkerke, Maronite Patriarchate

Part of a series on
Maronite Church
Coat of arms of the Syriac Maronite Church, an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church
Patriarchate
Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi
Religious orders and societies
Antonin Maronite Order Congregation of the Lebanese Maronite Missionaries Lebanese Maronite Order Mariamite Maronite Order Maronite Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Communities
Cyprus Israel Lebanon Syria Lebanese diaspora
Languages
Arabic Lebanese Arabic Cypriot Arabic .mw-parser-output .nobold{font-weight:normal} Liturgical Aramaic Syriac (Foreign French English)
History
Maron Monastery of Saint Maron John Maron Mardaites County of Tripoli Ottoman rule 1860 conflict Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate 1958 Lebanon crisis Greater Lebanon Lebanon Bkerké Lebanese Civil War South Lebanon conflict Taif Agreement
Related politics
National Pact Lebanese politics Lebanese nationalism Phoenicianism Kataeb Party Marada Movement Lebanese Forces Free Patriotic Movement
Catholicism portal Eastern Christianity portal
v t e

Bkerké (Arabic: بكركي, also Bkerke or Bkirki) is the episcopal see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, located 650 m above the bay of Jounieh, northeast of Beirut, in Lebanon.

Though now exclusively used by the church, the area was owned by the noble Khazen family. The clergy use it under a special waqf.^[1][2]

History[edit]

The see of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate was never in Antioch, since created in around 858 AD it was in Kfarhay in Batroun mountains then it kept on moving in varied locations in Byblos mountains for 500 years such as Yanouh, Mayfouq, Lehfed, Habeel, Kfifan, al-Kafr, and Hardeen in the Byblos region. It then moved to Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley because of intensified persecution and remained there from 1440 to 1823 when it moved to Dimane and lastly, in 1830, to Bkerké.^[3] Today, Maronite Patriarchs use Dimane as a summer residence and Bkerké as a winter one.

The earlier building on Bkerké site was a monastery settled in 1703. In 1830 it became the winter residence of the Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch. The present red roofed structure was built in 1893^[4] during the time of Patriarch John Peter El Hajj.

An old book references a convent, called Kourket, that was likely in this same area, if not on the same site. According to these (likely sensationalized) stories, the convent, founded around 1755, had high death rates, blamed on the air of the region. In 1775, a traveler, who spent the night outside the convent walls, observes a body being secretively buried and tells the local ruler. He sends a contingent of horsemen to gain access to the convent, where they discover "abominations which make the hair stand on end". The founder of the convent, Hendia, had "destroyed her nuns, sometimes to get their property into her hands, at other times, because they showed themselves refractory to her orders...". After this discovery, she was jailed and escaped from multiple convents ^[5].

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Bkerké.

• Bkerke

Coordinates: 33°58′05″N 35°38′01″E / 33.9680556°N 35.6336111°E / 33.9680556; 35.6336111

• History Of Bkerke


• Bkerke Court Documents