Our forgotten brothers: the Rum Orthodox Christians (Romeoi) of the Middle East. (Part 1 out of 4)

These last few days, we have been watching what is brewing in the Middle East with awe. With awe and possibly a secret anxiousness, hoping the conflict does not expand, that the problems do not spill to our own lands. However, while the conflict is confined there, we consider it something foreign, we believe it does not concern us, that it does not involve us. And yet, we are deeply wrong. Not only does it concern us greatly, but we are in the midst of these events. Because there live our forgotten brothers, the two million Rum Orthodox Christians (Romeoi) of the Middle East.

Indeed. Two million Orthodox Romeoi in the Middle East, and many more millions in the diaspora. What are all of them? They are the very same as us, they have the same history, they belong to the same civilization, they have the same historic capital, the same faith, the same customs, the same ancestors, the same heroes, the same saints, the same present and the same future, and they have been revealed the same luminous, soteriological, eschatological path. We are the same collective, the same Genos (sic). All of us, we are the Pious Genos of the Romeoi.

Greek cities in Syria and the general area are already mentioned in the 7th century B.C. However, the real spread of the Greek language in the area, and especially of the Greek civilization, will happen after the years of Alexander the Great and the Seleucid dynasty, when tens of Greek cities are being built. Under Seleucus I Nicator the city of Antioch on the Orontes will be established, with the first settlers being mainly Athenians and Macedonians. Antioch will be a cradle for the Greek civilization, and later for Christianity, while the whole area will be a central pylon of Romania (the misnamed Byzantine Empire) for hundreds of years. Many scholars and great intellectuals and artists, as well as a multitude of saints, will arise here. We will mention Luke the Evangelist, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Abba Isaac the Syrian, and many others.
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