1. Our Lord Jesus Christ, His Blessed Mother, and the Apostles were all born and lived in the East. Christ’s family tree goes back to Abraham - the father of all faithful - and his descendants who lived in the East.
2. The first Church was born in Jerusalem. Christians were first called by that name in Antioch as the Acts of the Apostles attests. The Apostolic Sees founded by the Apostles are all in the East except the See of Rome founded by St. Peter in the West.
3. The first Ecumenical Councils (where all the bishops of the world gathered to articulate doctrines of faith) were held in the East. For example, the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) proclaimed the Christian faith that Jesus Christ in his divinity is equal to (“consubstantial with”) God the Father. The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) proclaimed that Christ is fully divine and human.
4. Monasticism started with St. Anthony in Egypt who was followed by a great throng of “fathers of the desert” and spread in the East before it went to the West. Giants include Sts. Basil, Maron, Pachomius, Simeon, Daniel and many others. In our times, modern saints in the Eastern Catholic Churches such as St. Charbel, St. Rafka, and Blessed “Mary of Jesus Crucified” shine as models of holy life. Characteristic of the Christian East is the spiritual guidance by holy monks which helped many people in their lives. The writings of spiritual fathers such as St. John Climacus “The ladder of virtues” are invaluable.
5. Many of the great and popular saints and martyrs in the history of Church came from the East. Sts. Mary, Barbara, Catherine, Dimitri, George, Maron, Nicolas, Simeon and many others came from the East. The Eastern Church produced millions of martyrs who accepted suffering and death rather than renouncing their faith.
6. The Eastern Church produced many thinkers, theologians and philosophers who defended the faith. In the 2nd to the 5th centuries, the school of Alexandria and that of Antioch were most influential in theology and philosophy. Some of the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church came from these schools such as Sts. Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria and John Chrysostom. Traditionally, 4 Greek doctors are well known: St. Basil; St. Gregory the Theologian; St. John Chrysostom and St. Athanasius. The work of St. John of Damascus influenced the study of theology in Europe in the Middle Ages. Today, the whole Catholic Church is calling for a renewed interest in the Fathers and their writings.
7. Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter “The Light of The East” says this on the liturgy in the Christian East “The sense of inexpressible divine reality is reflected in liturgical celebration, where the sense of mystery is so strongly felt by all the faithful of the Christian East...One of the first great values embodied particularly in the Christian East is the attention given to peoples and their cultures so that the Word of God and His praise may resound in every language” (Orientale Lumen, 6, 7)
George Farahat, Prepared for the 2nd Conference of Eastern Catholic Churches in Toronto
