Pierre Bostani
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Pierre Bostani | |
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Catholic Archbishop | |
Church | Maronite Church |
Orders | |
Consecration | 12 October 1842 |
Personal details | |
Born | November 1819 |
Died | 15 November 1899 |
Pierre Bostani or Boutros Boustani (November 1819 – 15 November 1899) was a
Life
Bostani was born in Debbié in November 1819 and baptized 8 days later. Having chosen the priesthood at a young age, Bostani enrolled in the Ain-Warca Maronite university where he studied Syriac, Arabic, Latin, Italian, rhetoric, philosophy, dogma, moral, canon law, the calendar and Church music.[4] He was ordained a Maronite priest on 12 October 1842 by the rector of the university. Upon leaving the university, Bostani taught Syriac and Arabic at the Maronite seminary of Tyr and Sidon for two years. He then returned to his university to teach the youth enrolled there. He had only been teaching for a year that he was quickly called upon by his relative, the Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon Abdallah Bostani,[5] who named him his private secretary. In 1845, Pierre Bostani was called by the Maronite Patriarch to serve as his private secretary, treasurer of the Patriarchy, judge for ecclesiastical affairs, and Vicar General of the Maronite Patriarchy. He would hold this position for 11 years.[4]
On 28 July 1856, Maronite Patriarch Massad named him Coadjutor-Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon alongside his relative the Archbishop Abdallah Bostani who was becoming very old and weak. He also received the title of Bishop of Saint-John-Acre.[1] He immediately set out to preach in his diocese, repairing the various abuses and combatting the advances made by the Protestant missionaries in converting the people. His biography states that he challenged, on four distinct occasions, the Protestant ministers to public discussions of faith and religious doctrine in front of six thousand people in the villages of Deir al-Qamar and Hasbeiya.[4]
Eugène Poujade, the French Consul of
Following the sectarian violence which afflicted Mount Lebanon in the 1840s, Bishop Abdallah Bostani made "an impassioned plea to the women of France"[7] stating: "thus would our freedom be restored to us; are we not united with you, O French in heart? Is not our blood and honour your blood and honour?...Our enemies curse and deride us saying: where are your French friends? Where are your Christian kings? Where are their warships and soldiers? Did they come to your aid, O infidel dogs?...It was our love for France and our calling upon her for support that has brought upon us these catastrophes".[8]
Bishop Abdallah Bostani had fervently applauded the Maronite delegate to Rome, Bishop Nicolas Murad, in his tour of European capitals pushing for the return of a Christian government to Mount Lebanon. Keeping him supplied with petitions of supplication from his parishioners, Abdallah Bostani sent Bishop Murad letters and petitions which decried the violent conditions "in the bishopric that Bustani had served so faithfully for forty years".[9] Cardinal Fransoni, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, was asked by Murad and Bostani to plea the Holy See for the return of stability to Mount Lebanon, including the return of Bashir II as governor.[9]
During the
Pierre Bostani became Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon on 5 October 1866.[14]
As this archdiocese neither had an official seat nor any buildings, Pierre Bostani purchased in 1860 an old palace in Beiteddine which he restored and enlarged thus making it a seminary and the official seat of his archbishopric. He restored seven churches which had been destroyed, and built six others. He founded the college of Saint Joseph in Jezzine and restored an hospice and a Maronite monastery both located in Deir al-Qamar.[4]
The French historian Baptistin Poujoulat made the following observation of Bishop Pierre Bostani in 1860: "In general, all the Maronite bishops are recommended by their virtue and knowledge of science. One of these, Boutros Bostani, a child of the country, has in him something of Fénelon and Bossuet. He is gentle, pious, persuasive; he is knowledgeable, invincible in his faith, eloquent. He has upheld, recently, magnificent battles against Anglicanism which aims to take hold, in vain, of the Catholic mountain. These honorable struggles have given him the name Thunder of the Protestants. Too poor to pay for professors in his college of Machemouché, he is personally responsible for almost all the education. Within this college, thrice burnt by the Druze and twice rebuilt by the Bishop, he taught not only theology but also philosophy, history, Arab and Syriac literature, and jurisprudence".[11]
Like many Maronite bishops at this time, Pierre Bostani was the de facto diplomatic representative of his bishopric vis-à-vis the European nations represented in Lebanon. For example, he had been prudent in overly trusting the new French consul appointed to Beirut, Count Bentivoglio. Though the brother-in-law of the
Travels to Rome, Paris, Istanbul
Bostani accompanied Maronite
Following Rome, Patriarch Massad and Bostani travelled to France where they met Napoleon III. The delegation then journeyed to Istanbul where they were received by Sultan Abdul-Aziz in his palace. Archbishop Bostani was presented with the Ottoman Order of the Medjidie.[18]
Two years later, Patriarch Massad requested that Archbishop Bostani head the Maronite delegation that would attend the First Vatican Council in Rome in 1869. On Friday 1 July 1870, during the 80th General Congregation of the Council, Archbishop Bostani celebrated the official mass in the Vatican.[19]
The Council had just met when King Victor Emmanuel II attacked Rome and deposed Pope Pius IX. Pius IX suspended the Council indefinitely on 20 October 1870.
Arrest and exile
On 1 June 1878, Archbishop Bostani was arrested and exiled to Jerusalem under order of
Governor Rustem Pasha was immediately called to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople to justify his actions. Upon the insistence of the French government, Archbishop Pierre Bostani returned to his Archdiocese on a French warship on 9 November 1878[18] Overseen by the Maronite Patriarch himself, the Maronites celebrated the return of their Archbishop with grand festivities that were long remembered by the Lebanese afterwards.[21]
In his book on the history of Ottoman Lebanon, Engin Akarli argues that prelates such as Bostani and Archbishop Dibs of Beirut purposefully rallied the Maronites against the Ottoman government following the Ottoman state's defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Unfortunately for Bostani, the French ambassador in Constantinople and the British consul in Beirut, including the Apostolic Delegate Luigi Piavi, all sided with Rustem Pasha against him.[22] French pressures at home would ultimately push the French government in reinstating Bostani.[23]
See also
References
- ^ a b Les Pères du concile du Vatican: biographie illustrée complète de tous les pères du concile... Administration du Concile Illustré. 1870. p. 39. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ Correspondance de Rome. 1847. p. 182. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b David M. Cheney. "Archbishop Pietro Bostani [Catholic-Hierarchy]". catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b c d e Actes et histoire du concile oecuménique de Rome MDCCCLXIX, 1er du Vatican, 1689. Pilon. 1871. p. 28. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ Revue catholique: recueil religieux, philosophique, scientifique, historique et littéraire. Vol. 14. Fonteyn. 1860. p. 568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b Poujade, E. (1860). Le Liban et la Syrie, 1845-1860. A. Bourdilliat et cie. p. 156. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ Annales franciscaines. Vol. 1. Poussielgue. 1863. p. 136. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b Poujoulat, B. (1861). La vérité sur la Syrie et l'expédition française. Gaume frères et J. Duprey. p. 225. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9780520273412. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9780520273412. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ Society for the Propagation of the Faith (1868). Les Missions Catholiques. Lyon [etc.] p. 362. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ ISBN 9781860640568. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b "La Croix | Gallica". gallica.bnf.fr. 2 December 1899. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ Actes et histoire du concile oecuménique de Rome MDCCCLXIX, 1er du Vatican, 1689. Pilon. 1870. p. 230. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ^ a b http://booksnow1.scholarsportal.info/ebooks/oca9/5/annalescatholiqu25pari/annalescatholiqu25pari.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ a b "Dictionnaire de théologie catholique : contenant l'exposé des doctrines de la théologie catholique, leurs preuves et leur histoire". Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9780520273412. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
- ISBN 9780520913080. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
External links
- Archbishop Pierre Bostani on Catholic-Hierarchy