Byzantine Catholics

Greek Byzantine Catholic Church
Classification	Catholic
Orientation	Eastern Catholic, Byzantine Rite
Structure	Apostolic Exarchates
Leader	Bishop Manuel Nin Apostolic Exarch of Greece
Associations	Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Region	Greece, Constantinople
Origin	June 11, 1911
Separated from	Greek Orthodox
Congregations	4
Members	2,526
Ministers	11

The Greek Byzantine Catholic Church (Greek: Ελληνόρρυθμη Καθολική Εκκλησία, Ellinórrythmi Katholikí Ekklisía) is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic particular church of the Catholic Church that uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in Koine Greek and Modern Greek. Its membership includes inhabitants of Greece and Turkey as well as the Griko people of Southern Italy.

After the failure of the attempts by the Council of Lyon in 1274 and by the Council of Florence in 1439 to repair the breach of the East-West Schism between Greek and Latin Christians, many individual Greeks, then under Ottoman rule, embraced communion with Rome.

However, it was not until the 1880s that a sui juris church specifically for Greek Catholics who followed the Byzantine rite was built in the village of Malgara in Thrace. Before the end of the 19th century, two more such churches were built, one in Constantinople and the other in Chalcedon.

In 1826, Catholic priest John Marangos began a mission among the Orthodox Christians of Constantinople, where he managed the construction of a small community. In 1878, he moved on to Athens, where he died in 1885 after he had founded a church. In addition, he had won two small villages in Thrace for the Catholic faith.

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