Changes

The seat of the patriarchate was formerly Antioch (Antakya), in what is now Turkey, but is now Damascus, Syria, located on the "street called Straight." In official documents, the Church of Antioch is referred to as the '''Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East'''.

==History==

The schism greatly weakened the Antiochian church, and in 637 when Antioch fell to the [[Islam|Muslim]] Arabs, the "Greek" church was perceived by the invaders as allied to the Romano-Byzantine enemies of the Arabs. During the subsequent period, Antiochian Orthodox Christians underwent a lengthy period of persecution, and there were multiple periods of either vacancy or non-residence on the Antiochian patriarchal throne during the 7th and 8th centuries. In 969, the Roman Empire regained control of Antioch, and the church there prospered again until 1085, when the Seljuk Turks took the city. During this period of more than a hundred years, the traditional West Syrian [[liturgy]] of the church was gradually replaced by that of the tradition of the Great Church, [[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)|Hagia Sophia]] in Constantinople. This process was completed sometime in the 12th century.

In 1098, Crusaders took the city and set up a Latin Patriarchate of Antioch to adorn its Latin Kingdom of Syria, while a Greek patriarchate continued in exile in Constantinople. After nearly two centuries of Crusader rule, the Egyptian Mamelukes seized Antioch in 1268, and the Orthodox patriarch, [[Theodosius IV of Antioch|Theodosius IV]], was able to return to the region. By this point, Antioch itself had been reduced to a smaller town, and so in the 14th century [[Ignatius II of Antioch|Ignatius II]] transferred the seat of the patriarchate to Damascus, where it remains to this day, though the patriarch retains the Antiochian title.