GREEK CATHOLICS IN AMERICA 207 



licul American," they also publish a fine eight-page weekly, 

 "Romanul," at Cleveland and New York, which gives a great 

 deal of church news, and they also publish a little monthly 

 magazine and an illustrated year-book in which many details 

 of their churches, societies, and progress are given. The 

 weekly paper was originally founded by Father Lucaciu to 

 provide reading-matter and general news for his people, but 

 it has since passed into other hands. Their societies are not 

 strictly speaking church organizations, but are rather mutual 

 benefit societies for Rumanians, and some even have a limited 

 membership of the Orthodox, for the Rumanians of Hungary, 

 whether Greek Catholic or Greek Orthodox, are very closely 

 united upon racial and national feelings, and do not exhibit 

 the hostility sometimes shown between the two Churches else- 

 where. The principal societies are "Racia Romana," "Ardea- 

 lana," "Unirea Romana," and "Societatea Traian," numbering 

 altogether about 3000 members, and generally identified with 

 the church congregations. 



III. — Syrian (Melchite) Greek Catholics 



About 1886 the first immigration from the Mediterranean' 

 coasts of Asia began to reach the shores of the United States, 

 when the Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians began to swell the 

 numbers of our immigrants. Among them came the Syrian 

 Greeks, or those Syrians who were of the Byzantine Rite, 

 whether Catholic or Orthodox. The name Melchite is occa- 

 sionally used to designate a Syrian of the Greek Orthodox 

 Faith, but now it rarely has that meaning, since the schismat- 

 ics prefer to be known as Syro-Arabians, at least in the 

 United States, where they are largely under Russian influ- 

 ence, for it is nearly always applied to the Catholics. After 

 the Council of Chalcedon the Melchites followed the for- 

 tunes of the Greek Church of Constantinople. When it sep- 

 arated from Rome they also gradually became separated, 

 merely through inertia. Occasionally a bishop became Catho- 

 lic, and there were sporadic attempts to reunite them with 

 the Holy See. Cyril V, who was elected Patriarch of Antioch 

 about the year 1700, decided to come back to unity and made 

 his submission and profession of the Catholic Faith to Pope 



