Elias Peter Hoayek

His Beatitude
Elias Peter Hoayek
الياس بطرس الحويّك
Patriarch of Antioch
Church Maronite Church
See Patriarch of Antioch
Elected January 6, 1899
Term ended December 24, 1931
Predecessor John Peter El Hajj
Successor Anthony Peter Arida
Orders
Ordination 1870 (Priest)
Consecration December 14, 1889 (Bishop)
by Paul Peter Massad
Personal details
Born (1843-12-04)December 4, 1843
Helta, Lebanon
Died December 24, 1931 (aged 87)
Bkerké, Lebanon

Elias Peter Hoayek (born 4 December 1843 in Helta, Lebanon - died on 24 December 1931, Bkerké, Lebanon), (or Hoyek, Hwayek, Huayek, Juayek, Hawayek, Arabic: الياس بطرس الحويّك‎‎) was the 72nd Patriarch of Antioch for the Maronites, the largest Christian Catholic community in the Middle East, from 1898 to 1931 when he died.

He is hailed as the father of Lebanonism and the founder of the modern Lebanese state by some. Many Lebanese people hailed his patriotism, and follow his example and maintain it to this day. Hoayek is considered, by some, the founder of Lebanon.

Early life

Elias Hoayek was born in Helta, Batroun, North Lebanon on December 4, 1843.[1] He studied at the Seminary College of St. John Maroun in North Lebanon. He later went to the Jesuit seminary of Ghazir in 1859, where he studied languages (French, Arabic, Syriac, Latin, Greek) as well as philosophy. In 1866, he went to Rome to study theology at the Propaganda Fide. In 1870, he was made a Catholic priest and returned to Lebanon. Upon his return, he taught theology at his old school the Seminary of St. John Maroun. He was appointed secretary and moved to the patriarchal residence in 1872, where he remained until 1898 when he was elected Patriarch. He was consecrated titular bishop of Arca on December 14, 1889[2] by Patriarch Paul Peter Massad.

As vicar of Patriarch John Peter El Hajj, he was commissioned to raise the necessary funds for the construction of a residence to the Maronites in Jerusalem and for the construction of the new Maronite seminary in Rome, which opened in 1893. In 1895 Hoayek founded the Congregation of the Holy Family to women.

Becoming Patriarch

The previous Patriarch, John el Hajj, died on Christmas Eve in 1898; Monseigneur Hoayek was requested to return to Lebanon from a trip to Rome. On January 6, 1899, he was elected Patriarch and, in the consistory of June 19, 1899, Hoayek had ratified the choice of Maronite bishops by Pope Leo XIII and His Holiness granted him the pallium.[3]

Hoayek adopted the middle name Peter (Boutros) to signify him being the successor to St. Peter first Bishop of Antioch.

Patriarch Hoayek’s residence was simple, consisting of three rooms: a bedroom/office, a reception room and a chapel. He was known to particularly revere the readings of the confessions of St. Augustine, the Eternal Maxims and the Imitation of Christ.

Among his first acts as patriarch was the construction of a new residence in Bkerké, replacing the former one: the foundation stone was laid on September 29, 1899. In 1893, he began the construction of the new Maronite College of Rome, inaugurated on February 7, 1904. In 1906, he obtained from the Holy See the division of the eparchy of Tyre and Sidon in two separate dioceses.[4] Between 1906 and 1908, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, he ordered the construction of the statue of the Madonna in Harissa that still dominates the region.

Support for the Diaspora

Patriarch Hoayek in 1899

He was behind the creation of a Patriarchal Vicariate in Cairo, Egypt in 1904, the first Maronite ecclesiastical structure after 1736. He was founder of the church in Cyprus, delegating Shikrallah Khoury and Peter Chebly. He was the founder of the independent dioceces in the United States of America and in Argentina in 1920.

Challenges of the First World War

The First World War saw a lot of persecution of the Christians in the Middle East. Some sources cite one and a half million of Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces in the war. The Ottoman Empire was allied to Germany. The Ottomans (upon German request) set up a blockage of the Lebanese and Syrian coast line. As a result, a third of the Lebanese population died of famine. Jamal Pasha, Ottoman military governor took steps to exile Hoayek because of his relations with France. In 1915, the blockade as well as a large locust infestation had resulted in deplenished food supplies. This situation continued until 1919. The Patriarch received funds from Lebanese Diaspora and the French government. Again, Jamal Pasha attempted to exile the Patriarch.

End of the War

The HM British army entered Damascus while the Ottoman (and their German allies) retreated to the North. This ended four hundred years of Ottoman rule in Lebanon. A transitional governance body was installed by the allied British and French forces.

Peace Congress in Versailles

In 1919, Patriarch Hoayek headed the Lebanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. Prince Faisal had hopes for an Arab kingdom to encompass Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. Patriarch Hoayek fought to be able to see Lebanon free from the Ottoman Empire and had no desire to see it become part of an Arab monarchy.

The Lebanese delegation led by Hoayek presented the Lebanese aspirations as follows:

On October 25, he presented the assembly of the Peace Congress with this memorandum.

Lebanon's Independence

General Gouraud announced a declaration by France of the independence of Lebanon on September 1, 1920. He outlined the country's boundaries to include the area from Ras-al-Naqurah (Naqurah peninsula) in the South to Nahr-el-Kabir in the North and from the summits of the Anti-Lebanon mountain in the East to the Mediterranean sea in the West. The new entity under French mandate was initially called The State of Greater Lebanon.

Death

Elias Hoayek died on December 24, 1931 in Bkerké.

Quotation

Hoyek wrote: "Both national feeling and religion make it an obligation for you to respect and love everybody whatever may be his belief. Reason leads you to fraternize with the person you live with under the same sky and on the same land" (Hoyek, Al-Zakhair Al-Saniyyat, Jounieh, 1931 p. 501).

See also

Sources

Notes

  1. ↑ "Patriarch Elias Pierre Hoyek (Hoayek)". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  2. ↑ gcatholic.org
  3. ↑ vatican.va
  4. ↑ [Papal brief, Supreme of 26 January 1906.]
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