New Antiochian Patriarch

[Anthimos]

His Eminence the Metropolitan Archbishop of Western and Central Europe has been elected Patriarch of Antioch and all the East. Patriarch John X (Yazigi) was elected by the members of the Holy Synod on December 17, during a special session held at the Balamand Patriarchal Monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. He is the first Arab-Antiochian Patriarch to be a monk tonsured at the Athonite Monastery of St Paul on the Holy Mountain. The Patriarch-elect was born in 1955 in the city of Latakiya, Syria into a pious Orthodox home. His father was Syrian and was a professor of Arabic Language. His mother is Lebanese. He has four brothers, with his brother Paul being the current Metropolitan of Aleppo, and he has one sister who is a nun.

Read more
http://www.antiocheurope.org/en/news/de ... 2C-Antioch.

[Barbara]

Thank you for this information, Anthimos. I hadn't heard the news.

Sounds like a powerful family now - with the brother Metropolitan of Aleppo.
Recalls to mind Paul of Aleppo, whose father was Kyr Makarios, Metropolitan of that exceedingly ancient
city, a great center of civilization, in the 1650s.

Has anyone heard anything one way or the other about the new Patriarch of Antioch [site of the
first Christian church] ?

[Matthew]

I have not found any news on that. Just a minor corrective note: the city of Antioch was not the site of the first Christian Church. Rather, it was the site where believers were first called Christians.

[Anthimos]

This is a video of the first Divine Liturgy of the new Patriarch of Antioch John X at Saint Mary Cathedral in Damuscus, Syria on December 23.

[Matthew]

Thanks for video link.