Syriac Orthodox

An Oriental Orthodox Christian religion based in the Eastern Mediterranean. By tradition it derives from an early Christian community established in Antioch by St. Peter the Apostle. It uses the oldest surviving liturgy in Christianity, the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle, which is celebrated in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic spoken by Jesus and the apostles. The church is led by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. The group has historically been called "Jacobites" after St. Jacob Baradaeus, bishop of Edessa, who organized their community in the 6th century; however, they reject that name because they trace their beginnings instead to St. Peter.