Maximos IV Sayegh
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Maximos IV Sayegh (Saïgh) (April 10, 1878 – 1967) was Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 1947 to 1967. One of the fathers of Vatican II, the outspoken patriarch stirred the Council by urging reconcilliation between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
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[edit] Life
Massimo Sayegh was born on April 10, 1878. He was ordained a priest on September 17, 1905 and was appointed archbishop of Tyr, Lebanon on August 30, 1919. In 1933 he was named archbishop of Beirut.
The Synod of Bishops of the Melkite Church elected Maximos Patriarch of Antioch in 1947, succeeding the recently departed Cyril IX Moghabghab.
[edit] Participation in Second Vatican Council
Patriarch Maximos IV took part in the Second Vatican Council. There he championed the Eastern tradition of Christianity, and won a great deal of respect from Eastern Orthodox observers at the council and the approbation of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I.
As a participant in Vatican II, Patriarch Maximos spoke forcefully against the latinization of the Eastern Catholic churches, and urged a greater receptivity to the eastern Christian traditions, especially in the area of ecclesiology. He stated that
We have, therefore, a two-fold mission to accomplish within the Catholic Church. We must fight to insure that latinism and Catholicism are not synonymous, that Catholicism remains open to every culture, every spirit, and every form of organization compatible with the unity of faith and love. At the same time, by our example, we must enable the Orthodox Church to recognize that a union with the great Church of the West, with the See of Peter, can be achieved without being compelled to give up Orthodoxy or any of the spiritual treasures of the apostolic and patristic East, which is opened toward the future no less to the past. [[1]]
Also at Vatican II, Patriarch Maximos successfully advocated use of vernacular languages for liturgical services, noting that:
Christ offered the first Eucharistic Sacrifice in a language which could be understood by all who heard him, namely, Aramaic. … Never could the idea have come to them [the Apostles] that in a Christian gathering the celebrant should read the texts of Holy Scripture, sing psalms, preach or break bread, and at the same time use a language different from that of the community gathered there … because this language [Latin] was spoken by the faithful of that time, Greek was abandoned in favor of Latin. … Why, then, should the Roman Church cease to apply the same principle today?
Speaking at the Council on the matter of indulgences, he noted that "the practice of indulgences too often favors in the faithful a sort of pious bookkeeping in which one forgets what is essential, namely, the sacred and personal effort of penance".
Patriarch Maximos IV accepted the title of cardinal bishop on February 2, 1965. He died in 1967 of cancer in Beirut, Lebanon at the age 89. He was succeeded by Maximos V Hakim.
[edit] See also
- Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchs of Antioch
- Patriarch of Antioch
- Maximos V Hakim, late Patriarch
- Gregory III Laham, current Patriarch
