Missionaries as Humanitarian Mediators after the 1860 troubles in Lebanon

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to examine how the 1860 Crisis in Mount Lebanon and Damascus crisis shaped discourses and practices of humanitarianism among the missions and affected their relations with both local and foreign state actors. Catholic missionaries were witnesses and victims but also in the long run beneficiaries of the events of 1860. They were themselves involved in the distribution of the aid through their participation to the relief committees. As victims they also received relief from the French government, the Œuvre des Ecoles d’Orient and the Ottoman Empire. Their action during this period strengthened their links with diplomatic agents and with the French government, as well as it reinforced the position of the clergy of the Oriental Catholic churches.