Despite their Syriac Rites, Maronites were [[Acephali]] of Parthian (Mardaite) ethnicity and by the time of Nestorian Patriarch IshoyahbIII of Adiabene (649-659), many had converted to Islam before John Maron was appointed as their first Patriarch after the 3rd Council of Constantinople in 680CE specifically in order to call them back into the folds of the Roman Church.
