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As is true for Christianity in many places in the world, Lebanese Catholicism has been repeatedly shaped and reshaped by migration. Maronites likely emigrated to Mount Lebanon from modern-day Syria at least a millennium ago, as did Melkite Greek in the early 18th century. Armenian Catholics established their headquarters in Beirut because of the catastrophic genocide that displaced them from their homelands a century ago. Chaldean Catholics followed more recently from Iraq. Egyptian Coptic Catholics have migrated for work and have built an attractive church complex in Beirut. From the late

Asked about the ways that Catholicism and contemporary Lebanese culture shape family life in Lebanon today, Catholics in Lebanon generally suggested that norms and ideals for the family are remarkably similar for Muslims and Christians.1 While many Lebanese women live outwardly modern lives, with equal access to education, the cultural attitude is still explicitly patriarchal, both at the macro and 1The articles about Lebanon on this site are based on in-person research and conversations in several parts of Lebanon in 2014 and 2022, supplemented by the various sources cited here.

Images of saints are ubiquitous along streets, in public squares, and in homes in Maronite parts of Lebanon . A visitor who had no knowledge of Catholicism might conclude from the images he sees in public that the Virgin Mary in particular, followed by two natives of Lebanon, St. Charbel and St. Rafqa; and St. Elijah (Ilyas) are the key figures of the Catholic faith. Another Lebanese saint, Nimatullah Al-Hardini, is also prominent on holy cards, often featured together with Saint Charbel and Saint Rafqa. By one count, there are more than 900 places in Lebanon dedicated to the Virgin Mary.[fn

Lebanon, which straddles a 200 km strip of coastal cities, snow-capped mountains and agricultural valleys along the Eastern Mediterranean, is home to the largest concentration of Catholics in the Middle East, living among a larger population of Muslims. A multi-confessional state, Lebanon is home to 18 officially recognized religious groups, among them Sunni, Shīʿa, and small numbers of Alawite and Ismaili Muslims; Maronite , Greek Melkite , and modest numbers of Armenian , Chaldean , Syrian and “Latin” Catholics; Lebanese Greek, Armenian and Syriac Orthodox; and Druze communities living in a

For 388 years the people of Oberammergau, Germany, a village of 5,400 people at the edge of the Alps, have performed a Passion Play once a decade in fulfillment of a collective vow made at a moment of desperation. What began as a local act of devotion by means of interpretive embodiment and reenactment grew into an international tourist attraction. The five-hour performance, in a theater big enough to seat most of Oberammergau’s residents, draws roughly 500,000 people per season.1 1Official counts ranged from 450,000 to 530,000 per season from 1960-2010. The theater seats 4,400 people.

In the northwestern suburbs outside Chicago, on a large property bordered by a cemetery and housing tracts, crowds sometimes exceeding 200,000 have been gathering for decades on freezing December nights in the city of Des Plaines to honor the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe in a manner that echoes the great feast in Mexico City . Just as it was once deemed to be surprising that a hill outside Mexico City would be the site for the appearance of the Virgin and that she would have appeared as a brown-skinned Nahuatl speaker, so too might it seem surprising that an unassuming 62-acre prairie land

During Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, students at Buta Minor Seminary were ordered at gunpoint to separate by ethnicity— Hutus over here, Tutsis over there! They chose instead to join hands and affirm their common identity as children of God. The forty students killed were quickly proclaimed martyrs of fraternity. Their costly solidarity defused the cry for reprisals and continues to inspire Burundians and others on the path of reconciliation. As the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes investigates the Burundi martyrs' cause for sainthood, Jodi

The beginnings of the Catholic charismatic movement are often located in a period during the late 1960s, when Catholics received “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” during retreats and conferences at Duquesne and Notre Dame Universities.1 1See René Laurentin, Pentecôtisme Chez les Catholiques (Paris: Beauchesme, 1974); and Edward O’Connor, The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1971). For a quick, basic overview see Mathew N. Schmalz, “What Is Charismatic Catholicism,” The Conversation, Sept. 25, 2020, https://theconversation.com/what-is-charismatic

The entire compound of Matridham Ashram, outside the Hindu holy city of Banaras in North India, is considered to be holy ground. While the pavilion is the center of Catholic charismatic religious services, there are three other areas or spaces in the compound that are considered to be especially sacred: the shrine to Mary and the Child Jesus; the Chapel; and what is called the “Darśan Bhavan.” As a sign of honor typical in Indic religious traditions, the statue of Mary and the child Jesus is garlanded. But what is especially important is the iconography that highlights the eyes. This artistic

Established in 1954, Matridham Ashram was for over thirty years an important Catholic retreat and education center focusing on inculturation or adapting Catholic religious practice to Indian cultural symbols and expectations. While it still holds retreats as part of its “Indian Christian Experience Program,” it is now much more widely known as a center for Catholic charismatic religiosity as well as the Khrist Bhakta movement among Hindu villagers who worship Jesus. Matridham literally means “abode of the mother” and is situated outside the Hindu holy city of Banaras in India’s most populous