Tradition · 451

Syriac Orthodox

The Syriac-speaking church of Antioch, one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, led by the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.

It rejected the Council of Chalcedon (451) and holds Miaphysitism. Its leading theologian was Severus of Antioch, and in the 6th century the bishop Jacob Baradaeus ordained clergy that gave it a separate hierarchy. Opponents called it “Jacobite” after him, a name the church does not use for itself. It uses Syriac in its liturgy and has communities in the Middle East, India and the diaspora.