Patriarch Toubia El Khazen Achievements:
After having elaborated on Toubia El Khazen’s personal life and how he became the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, we move on to list his achievements and the major events that occurred during his 10 years rule.
Patriarch Toubia El Khazen founded the Mar Antonios monastery in Bkaakata, Keserwan and was known for dedicating a lot of his time in taking care of Keserwan’s community and handling their problems and complaints. He was also a very generous man and would sacrifice from his time and money for families in need. He was a true man of God and a devoted Christian. Added to that, being from an honorable and wealthy family, he was able to give more and proved to be a real asset to the Maronite Church and Christians in Lebanon as a whole throughout all his ruling years.
Patriarch Toubia El Khazen died in Ajaltoun on the 19th of May 1766, and was buried in el Khazen’s family church.
Despite his fair rule and his remarkable generosity, Patriarch Toubia El Khazen found himself confronted to a group of bishops and monks who refused to abide by the Church’s orders and caused trouble whose echoes reached the Vatican and left Patriarch Toubia el Khazen deeply disappointed.
Patriarch Toubia El Khazen tried the impossible to settle the differences between the various monk orders and the bishops but he was unable to do so as the rifts were too large to close. In this context, there are several letters displaying Patriarch Toubia El Khazen’s views on the matter.
Letter Date June 1st 1761
“I hereby present all my respect to his beatitude the Pope Pius VII and recall the letter than his predecessor his holiness Clement XIII has sent us asking for our monk orders to remain united under one house and stay loyal to the Maronite Church and its head. Given the severity of the issue, I have given it all my attention and have done the impossible and resorted to all possible and available means to stop the divisions from occurring. However, and against my wish and to my great disappointment, the monks and bishops responsible for this rebellious act became more stubborn and less resilient and abolished all means of reconciliation. Moreover, they resorted to non-Christian men of power, mainly Druze Prince Mrad, to start their own monk order with a new monastery and a new president. Not only my advices as Patriarch were ignored, but also monks’ efforts all went in vain.”
In regards to the monks’ efforts to resolve the issue, Sheikh Kanaan al Kakadi, a messenger to the Great Roman pope, has written the following on the matter:
“As we saw their disobedience getting stronger and growing by the day, the Maronite Church requested from fellow monks, who were still abiding by the ecclesiastic rules and the Holy Synod decisions, to regroup and elect a new president and staff members. As a result, Father Germanos el Hasrouni al Halabi was voted as president, and our brothers Roufail al Haklani, Louis Al Halabi, Nesteer al Moussawwer al Traoublouli and Tedros el Bechrani were given appointed as members of the ruling bureau. Nevertheless, those efforts all went into vain as the rebellious monks and bishops refused those new appointments and went against the Church’s will. “
At this point, we leave your holiness the complete authority to see what should be done concerning this heinous and shameful act.
Letter dispatched from the patriarchal residence in Keserwan, Mount Lebanon
June1 1761
Your loyal servant
Toubia Boutros El Khazen
Patriarch of Antioch
Here’s another important letter dispatched by Patriarch Toubia El Khazen to his beatitude the Pope of Rome displaying the violations and atrocities that Beirut Bishop Youssef Estephan has done against the Christian community and the clergy order.
“Despite sitting repeatedly with our fellow Maronite bishop brothers in Beirut to resolve our differences and the accusations addressed towards the Maronite Church and the Patriarch, and even though all religious laws and customs were respected, no solutions were reached. For that purpose, we found it be righteous to present the violations that Bishop Youssef Estephan has committed in violation of all rules and traditions.
1- Questioning the Maronite Church and the Patriarch’s authority on several occasions.
2- Founding a new monastery and a new monk order without our consent or permission.
3- Throwing false accusations against the Maronite Church, such as being power-seekers.
4- Launching death threats against other fellow bishops and monks and intimidating them on several occasions.
5- Stealing money from our Churches in Beirut by refusing to let us collect what is rightfully ours.
6- Forbidding us from visiting our parishes and churches in Beirut.
7- Befriending non-Christian politicians to seek protection avoid punishment and spread his authority.
8- Firing nuns from their monastery and assaulting them physically.
9- Opening our churches to non-Christians and sharing our most sacred ecclesiastic secrets.
All those acts and more come in clear violation of our most sacred rules and decisions adopted by the Maronite synod, as well as trespass the rights of bishops and patriarchs. Based on the following, we hereby ask you to take the necessary measures and inflict the necessary punishments against his person for the sake of our Maronite Church.
Your loyal servant
Toubia Boutros El Khazen
Patriarch of Antioch
