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Germanos Mouakkad (born April 1853 in Damascus, Syria - died on 11 February 1912 in Beirut) was a Melkite priest and bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Baalbek. He was the maternal great-uncle of William Peter Blatty, bestselling American author of The Exorcist . [1]
Germanos Mouakkad was born in the beginning of April 1853, son of Issa Mouakkad and his wife Marie Kayata. His parents were Melkites. At his baptism he received the name Joseph. Up to the age of twelve, he attended a Christian school in his home parish, after which he worked as an assistant to a merchant.
At sixteen he became—against the fierce resistance of his mother—a novice in the monastery of the Holy Savior, where a monk named Ignace accepted him. After spending some years with Joseph Bakos studying philosophy, he was ordained by Clément Bahous priest and served as chaplain in Cairo and Damascus. From 1880 to 1886 Mouakkad was Patriarchal Vicar of the Melkite Patriarch of Jerusalem. On 16 March 1886, he received the episcopal ordination and was—now called Germanos—Bishop of the Eparchy of Baalbek. In 1896 Mouakkad received during his stay in Rome by Pope Leo XIII's permission, a medal for missionary priests and in 1903 established a missionary company to priests called Missionary Society of St. Paul (fr) in Harissa, Lebanon. [2]
Germanos Mouakkad died on February 11, 1912, in a French hospital in Beirut from the effects of long-term illness.
In 2014 a Lebanese stamp was issued with his picture.
The Syriac Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Christian jurisdiction originating in the Levant that uses the West Syriac Rite liturgy and has many practices and rites in common with the Syriac Orthodox Church. Being one of the twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches, the Syriac Catholic Church is a self-governed sui iuris particular church, while it is in full communion with the Holy See and with the entirety of the Catholic Church.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church, or Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Its chief pastor is Patriarch Youssef Absi, headquartered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Dormition in Damascus, Syria. The Melkites, who are Byzantine Rite Catholics, trace their history to the early Christians of Antioch, formerly part of Syria and now in Turkey, of the 1st century AD, where Christianity was introduced by Saint Peter.
The Melkite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch is the only actual residential Patriarchate of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. It was formed in 1724 when a portion of the Orthodox Church of Antioch went into communion with Rome, becoming an Eastern Catholic Church, while the rest of the ancient Patriarchate continues in full communion with the rest of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Cyril Salim Bustros is the archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut and Byblos and a former Professor at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. A native of Lebanon, he formerly served as archbishop of Baalbeck and later as eparch for the Melkite Church in the United States.
Elias Zoghby was the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Baalbek and a leading advocate of Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism. He is best known for his ecumenical interventions during Vatican II and his 1995 Profession of Faith, known as the Zoghby Initiative, which attempted to re-establish communion between the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church while maintaining communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
Demetrius I Qadi was Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1919 until 1925.
Peter IV Barakat Géraigiry was patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1898 until 1902.
Maximos III Michael Mazloum, was patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1833 until 1855. As patriarch he reformed church administration and bolstered clerical education. He was also the first Melkite patriarch granted civil authority by the Ottoman Empire when the Melkites were recognized as a unique millet.
Ignatius IV (Youssef) Sarrouf was Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1812. He is remembered for both his patriarchate, and for having been, as metropolitan of Beirut, a leading figure in the early history of the Melkite Church.
Agapius II Matar, was Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1796 to 1812.
Nakhlé Moutran was the pasha of Baalbek (Lebanon) during the late Ottoman empire period. He was a Greek Melkite Catholic, and inherited his political office from his grandfather who is said to have been the first Christian to be given the title Pasha after the Tanzimat edict of 1856. He was close to France, which after the onset of World War I caused his arrest and trial where he was sentenced to perpetual prison with labour, but died on his way to his designated imprisonment location in Diyarbakr.
Patriarch Ignatius III Atiyah was Melkite Patriarch of Antioch from 1619 to 1634. The first years of his patriarchate were marked by the split of the Melkite Church in two factions, a situation that lasted till the Synod of Ras-Baalbek held in 1628 which confirmed Ignatius Atiyah as the only Patriarch and ruled about the independence of the Melkite Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Abdel-Karim Meletios Euthymius II Karmah (1572–1635) was Melkite Patriarch of Antioch from 1634 to 1635. He had been a leading figure in the Melkite Church and metropolitan bishop of Aleppo. He died a few months after his election as Patriarch, probably poisoned because his will to proceed with a union with the Catholic Church.
Joseph VII Peter Tyan was the 66th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch from 1796 until his resignation in 1809.
The Archeparchy of Beirut and Byblos is a metropolitan eparchy of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church since 1881, an Eastern Catholic church in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Located in Lebanon, it includes the cities of Beirut and Byblos, and in terms of population, it is the largest Melkite eparchy in the Middle East. Its current Eparch, Georges Wadih Bacouni, S.M.S.P., was elected in November 2018.
Elias Coueter was bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and first eparch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Nossa Senhora do Paraíso em São Paulo for all Melkites in Brazil. The bishop's seat is located in São Paulo.
Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Baalbek is a diocese of the Catholic Church immediately subject to the Patriarchate of Antioch of the Melkites. It is currently governed by Archbishop Elias Rahal.
Jean Mansour, SMSP was Bishop and administrator in the Melkite Patriarchate of Antioch.
Youssef Absi is the current patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, serving since June 21, 2017.
Romano Bottegal was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and Trappist monk. Bottegal joined his order in the 1940s and lived as a hermit in Lebanon. He studied in Belluno and Rome before he was ordained as a priest and following this lived in Rome among his peers; he moved to Lebanon to oversee a new project there but was forced to return to Rome after it failed. But he was later granted permission to return there in order to live as a hermit where he remained in seclusion until his death.