“The Departure of St Jerome from Antioch” - 1452, Fresco by GOZZOLI, Benozzo (b. ca. 1420, Firenze, d. 1497, Pistoia)

Antioch, a city named for its beauty, was once ranked alongside Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople as one of the four great cities of the Roman and early Christian world. Founded in 300 B.C. by Seleukos I, a general of Alexander the Great, Antioch was established out of a conquered area in Syria and named the capital.

Antioch’s strategic location between the Mediterranean, Armenia, and Persia on the routes of the caravan trade and mercantile links to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf made it a crossroads and melting pot for a rich mixture of peoples. Greeks, Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabs, and Romans crowded the market place. The languages heard and spoken in Antioch included Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic, and Persian.

It is believed that Antioch was first evangelized by Peter and later on by Barnabas and Paul. Antioch became an important center for the early Christians and seems to be the first place that Jewish Christians began sharing their message with non-Jews (see Acts 11:19-21). Many believe that the gospels of Luke and Matthew were written in Antioch and followers of Christ were first called “Christians” there (Acts 11:26). Even after the fall of Rome, Antioch continued to thrive up until the crusades when it fell under the control of the Turks, followed by Latin occupation and later French mandate. Today it is known as Antakya. Located on the southeastern Hatay province of Turkey, little of the ancient city remains; yet even amidst the scattered rubble one can see a small trace of the city that was once the administrative center of Syria. Ancient Antioch flourished into one of the greatest cities of the eastern empire and became the cradle of Christianity.