Euthymios Saifi

Euthymios Michael Saifi
Euthymios Michael Saifi
Bishop of Tyre and Sidon
Church	Melkite Church
See	Tyre and Sidon
Installed	1682
Term ended	8 October 1723
Predecessor	Jeremy
Orders
Consecration	1682
Personal details
Born	Michael Saifi; 1643; Damascus, Syria
Died	8 October 1723; Damascus, Syria

Euthymios Michael Saifi (or Aftimios Sayfi, 1643–1723) was the Melkite Catholic bishop of Tyre and Sidon during the early 18th century. A leading proponent of re-establishing communion between the Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Catholic Church, he is often described as the architect of the Melkite Catholic Church.^[1]^: 33–36

Life

Michael Saifi was born in

priest shortly later and appointed teacher of the patriarchal school. In 1682 he was consecrated bishop of Tyre and Sidon by Cyril Zaim, who has become patriarch in the meantime.^[2]

Saifi, like many clerics in the patriarchate of Antioch, wanted to formally re-establish ties to the Church of Rome. In December 1683 he openly declared himself in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Saifi founded the Basilian Salvatorian congregation^[1]^: 34 and the Melkite Holy Savior Monastery (Deir-el-Moukhales) at Joun near Sidon.^[3] with the aim of supporting pastoral and missionary activities by well-educated and celibate Melkite clergy.

Four pro-Catholic Melkite bishops, who considered the 1694 agreement between Cyril Zaim and Athanase Dabbas over the patriarchal succession unlawful, urged Saifi to become patriarch. Saifi wrote to Rome, which forbade him to become patriarch, but appointed him

Apostolic administrator for the Catholic faithful in the Melkite Church on 6 December 1701.^[2]

Saifi had a very strong missionary zeal, which led him to interfere in other

Maronite and the Jerusalem

patriarchates. He and his missionaries promoted not only

Propaganda Fide

in 1723 and formally on 15 March 1729); regardless, they spread among some of the Catholic partisans of the Melkite Church.

Charging Saifi of meddling in other patriarchates affairs and of latinisations, in October 1718

Franciscans, who supported Athanasius, forcing Saifi to renounce. Athanasius Dabbas, in a synod held in Constantinople in 1722, deposed and exiled Saifi to allow some Greek bishop to take possession of his important episcopal See.^[2] Saifi, still supported by his faithfuls, was exiled in Adana. He escaped in 1723 returning to Damascus, where he died on 8 October 1723.^[4]

One year after his death, through his work, his nephew, Seraphim Tanas, was elected as the Greek Patriarch of Antioch under the name Cyril VI.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Descy, Serge (1993). The Melkite Church. Boston: Sophia Press.
^ ^a ^b ^c Nasrallah J. (1967). "Euthyme Saifi". Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques. Vol. 16. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. pp. 64–74.
^ Dick, Iganatios (2004). Melkites: Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Boston: Sophia Press. pp. 31–32.
^ Mansi, Joannes Dominicus (1905). Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio. Vol. 37. p. 127.

[Descy-1] Descy, Serge (1993). The Melkite Church. Boston: Sophia Press.

[DHGE-2] Nasrallah J. (1967). "Euthyme Saifi". Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques. Vol. 16. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. pp. 64–74.

[Dick-3] Dick, Iganatios (2004). Melkites: Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Boston: Sophia Press. pp. 31–32.

[4] Mansi, Joannes Dominicus (1905). Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio. Vol. 37. p. 127.

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