Catholic university works to preserve Lebanon’s Christian past

Lebanon’s successive crises have taken a visible toll on its economy and institutions, but they also endanger something less tangible: the memory, faith, and traditions through which a people understands its identity.

As emigration threatens both the continued presence of Christian communities in their homeland and the transmission of their heritage, the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) has made its preservation a mission for the future. Its work goes beyond protecting historical objects and documents: It safeguards the living witness of a people rooted in this land for nearly two millennia and ensures that this inheritance continues to shape Lebanon, inspire younger generations, and enrich the universal Church.

A mission rooted in Maronite history

Father Joseph Moukarzel, president of USEK, told EWTN News that preserving Christian heritage is not simply one of the university’s missions but lies at the heart of its identity.

USEK is the first university in Lebanon to be established by Lebanese citizens. Founded by the Lebanese Maronite Order in 1950, it continues the centuries-old role of Maronite monasteries as guardians of faith, knowledge, and culture. For generations, these monasteries protected manuscripts, liturgical traditions, sacred art, and the intellectual legacy of Christianity in the Middle East, including during some of the most difficult periods in Lebanon’s history.

Today, the university carries this mission forward through conservation, digitization, research, and education. Its library and archives hold thousands of manuscripts, rare books, maps, photographs, newspapers, and other collections documenting the religious, cultural, and intellectual history of Lebanon and the wider region.

Nearly 2,000 manuscripts are written in Syriac, Arabic, Greek, and Latin, many reflecting the spiritual and theological heritage of the Maronite Church and other Eastern Christian traditions.

A defining step came in 2002, when the Lebanese Maronite Order entrusted USEK with manuscripts gathered from nearly 30 monastic libraries. Moukarzel stressed that the university’s work extends beyond manuscripts. Its Conservation and Restoration Center treats icons, paintings, textiles, and archaeological objects, while the USEK Museum preserves collections tracing Lebanon’s spiritual and cultural journey.

The Phoenix Center for Lebanese Studies also houses political, ecclesiastical, artistic, musical, legal, and historical archives that shed light on the development of Lebanon and its Christian communities.

USEK also prepares future scholars, conservators, archivists, theologians, and heritage professionals, based on the conviction that heritage can survive only when transmitted to a new generation. It works with monasteries, dioceses, religious orders, patriarchal institutions, and international partners to preserve and promote these collections.

For Moukarzel, this mission is about far more than protecting historical objects; it safeguards the memory of a Christian people rooted in Lebanon for nearly 2,000 years. At a time of uncertainty and displacement across the Middle East, he described this work as both an act of faith and an act of hope.

Preserving heritage amid mounting challenges

Moukarzel added that financial instability has placed cultural and educational institutions under severe pressure. Conservation laboratories, digitization projects, archival preservation, and the specialized infrastructure needed to protect fragile collections all require sustained, long-term investment.

Yet the greatest challenge, he said, may be human rather than material. As Christian communities across the Middle East shrink and families leave in search of security and opportunity, the continuity of memory and tradition is also at risk. He also stressed that much of the Middle East’s Christian heritage remains little known beyond the region. Making it accessible through scholarship, conservation, and digitization is therefore not only a Lebanese responsibility but also an ecclesial mission requiring international solidarity.

Forming the next generation of custodians

On the role of younger generations, Moukarzel said Christian heritage should not be treated as something confined to museums and archives but as a living inheritance present in faith, liturgy, language, traditions, monasteries, and villages. USEK therefore encourages students to encounter it directly through research, archival work, conservation projects, field visits, and engagement with local communities. Students are also invited to use digital storytelling, documentary filmmaking, social media, and other technologies to share Eastern Christianity with wider audiences.

Through initiatives such as the AJYAL Lebanese Heritage Education Program, the university connects young people in Lebanon and the diaspora with their cultural roots. Moukarzel stressed that young Christians are not merely heirs to this history but its future authors, responsible for enriching it and passing it on. Whether they remain in Lebanon or build lives abroad, they can serve as custodians of memory and ambassadors of a heritage belonging to Lebanon and the universal Church.

Asked why preserving Christian heritage still matters in a country facing profound crises, Moukarzel said Lebanon’s recovery cannot be measured solely by the restoration of its economy and institutions. Rebuilding the country also requires safeguarding the values, history, and faith that have shaped its people for centuries.

“For Christians, this heritage is not simply a collection of monuments or ancient manuscripts. It is the living testimony of communities that have proclaimed the Gospel in this region since the earliest centuries of Christianity. Lebanon is one of the few places in the Middle East where this Christian presence has never been broken. Our monasteries, churches, liturgical traditions, sacred music, manuscripts, and the Syriac and Arabic Christian patrimony tell the story of generations who remained faithful to Christ despite persecution, conflict, and hardship.”

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