The death of His Holiness Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim

Patriarch Ignatius was born on 4 April 1920 in Meharde, a Christian village in northern Syria, nor far from Hama. He studied in Beirut, in the Greek-Orthodox seminary and at the Antiochene University. In 1946 he moved to Paris to continue his theological studies at the St Sergius Institute and from there went to England. After his return to Lebanon he was tireless in re-infusing vigor into a Church that risked turning in upon itself. He knew how to respond to the expectations of the new generations and was one of the promoters of the Movement of Orthodox Youth. After he was ordained bishop, to the astonishment of all he asked to be sent to Balamand, a magnificent monastery of Cistercian origins, but by then totally abandoned. Patriarch Ignatius had a dream: to see the ancient school of Antioch arise again there. Whoever visits that enchanting place sees for himself how the dream has come true beyond all expectations. In 1966 he was called to the see of Lattaqiya, where he remained until 1979, the year of his election to the patriarchate. It was as metropolitan of Lattaqiya that in 1968 he gave one of his most memorable addresses, on the occasion of the General assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala.

It is impossible to summarize in a few lines what was dear to the heart of a man like Patriarch Ignatius, who lived a long and intense life, but there is one word that came often to his lips and that he seemed to pronounce with a certain satisfaction, almost tasting it. This word was “the other”… His passion for this “other” in all its expressions and for an other who remains such and as “other” is loved is perhaps the greatest inheritance that he leaves as a gift, as a footprint that is to be followed.

The prior and the community in this hour are closer than ever to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch with fraternal love and faithful prayer and are certain of his efficacious intercession in heaven!