Lebanon bids farewell to Patriarch Hazim

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Lebanon and the Orthodox Church bid farewell to the late Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.

Prayers were held on Sunday at 12:00 at Saint Nicolas Cathedral, in Ashrafieh, Beirut with the participation of official and popular figures.

After the prayers, the body of the Patriarch was transferred to the Virgin Mary Cathedral, in Damascus, to be buried on Monday afternoon at the Patriarchs’ cemetery after prayers.

On Tuesday, St. George Hospital in Achrafieh announced the Patriarch was admitted into the intensive care unit after suffering a brain stroke, stressing that he was in stable condition.

Hazim was initially hospitalized on November 5 for what the hospital's administration had said were routine medical checks.

Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim was pronounced dead on 5 December 2012. He was 91 years old.

Ignatius was born Habib Hazim in 1921 in the village of Mhardeh near Hama in Syria. He is the son of a pious Greek Orthodox family and from an early age leaned towards serving the Church.

While studying literature in Beirut, he entered the service of the local Orthodox diocese, first by becoming an acolyte, then as a deacon.

During his studies at the American University of Beirut, young Habib was influenced by his outstanding philosophy professor Charles Malik.

In 1945 he went to Paris where he graduated from the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute.

On his return to the Eastern Mediterranean, he founded the University of Balamand in Lebanon which he then served for many years as dean. As Dean he sought to provide the Patriarchate with responsible leaders who had received a good spiritual and intellectual training and who were witnesses to an awakened and deeply personal faith.

He was one of the founders of the active Orthodox Youth Movement of Lebanon and Syria in 1942, through which he helped organize and lead a renewal of Church life in the Patriarchate of Antioch.

In 1953 he helped found Syndesmos, the world fellowship of Orthodox Youth and Theological Schools.

He was consecrated to the episcopacy in 1961 and elected Metropolitan of Lattakia in Syria in 1970.

On July 2, 1979, under the name of Ignatius IV, he became the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, the third ranking hierarch of the Orthodox Church after the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria.

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