Syriac Christians of the Antiochene tradition sought reunion with Rome repeatedly from the later Middle Ages, and a stable Catholic patriarchal line was secured with Ignatius Michael III Jarweh, elected in 1782 and confirmed by the Holy See. The Church suffered terribly in the massacres of Syriac Christians during the First World War, and again in our own time through the wars in Iraq and Syria, which drove many of its faithful from the plain of Nineveh and from Aleppo into exile.

It is headed by the Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriacs, whose residence is in Beirut, with eparchies in the Middle East and for the diaspora in Europe, the Americas and Australia. The Qurbono is celebrated in Syriac and Arabic according to the West Syriac tradition.

A West Syriac Church sui iuris under the Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriacs, in communion with Rome through the patriarchal line established in 1782.

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Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Holy Land, with a large diaspora; patriarchate at Beirut

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Roughly two hundred thousand faithful