Elias IV of Antioch

Patriarch Elias IV (Arabic: البطريرك إلياس الرابع al-Baṭriyark ʾIlyās ar-Rābiʿ; born ʾIlyās Muʿawwaḍ إلياس معوض; 1914 – June 21, 1979) was the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East from 1970 to 1979.

Elias IV Mouawwad
إلياس الرابع معوض
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
ChurchGreek Orthodox Church of Antioch
Installed1970
Term ended1979
PredecessorTheodosius VI of Antioch
SuccessorIgnatius IV of Antioch
Personal details
Born1914
Ottoman Syria
DiedJune 21, 1979
Damascus, Syria

Biography

Elias Mouawwad was born in 1914, in an Orthodox Christian family in modern-day Lebanon. He was ordained deacon in 1932, graduating from the Halki Theological School in 1939. In 1959, he was consecrated Metropolitan of Aleppo and Alexandretta, being elected Patriarch of Antioch on September 25, 1970, succeeding Theodosius VI only six days after his death.[1]

Elias's pontificate was characterized by intense partification in Eastern Mediterranean politics, plus increased participation in the Arab diaspora, lines that would mark Middle Eastern Christian hierarchy henceforth. He emphatically referred to his faithful as "Arab Christians", a denomination that was then not as widespread. In February 1974, he took part in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation 2nd Summit, in Lahore, being called on occasion by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia "Patriarch of the Arabs".[2] In 1977, Patriarch Elias met President Jimmy Carter, being the first Patriarch of Antioch to ever visit the United States, and reiterated the necessity of independence for Palestinians.[3] He consecrated with Metropolitan Ignátios Ferzli the Catedral Metropolitana Ortodoxa in São Paulo, Brazil, the following year. He died in Damascus on June 21, 1979, after suffering a heart attack.[4]

References
  1. "Bishop Elias Muawad of Aleppo has been elected by the Antioch Holy Synod in Beirut as the 163rd patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and the entire East". San Antonio Express: 98. 27 September 1970.
  2. Hage, Wolfgang (2007). Das orientalische Christentum. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag. p. 111. ISBN 9783170176683.
  3. "Antiochian Patriarch Elias IV". Washington Post. 25 June 1979.
  4. "Antiochian Patriarch Elias IV". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. 1979-06-25. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
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