Maronite patriarch who championed Lebanese independence among sainthood causes advanced by Pope Leo

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV advanced the sainthood causes of one woman and five men, including the Maronite patriarch who played an integral role in the establishment of modern-day Lebanon.

During a May 22 meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoyek of Antioch, paving the way for his beatification.

Born in Helta, Lebanon, which was under Ottoman control, he was elected patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church in 1899. During the First World War, when people faced a devastating famine orchestrated by the Ottoman authorities, Patriarch Hoyek leveraged Church funds and international connections to prevent starvation.

He also took a stand against the Ottoman Empire’s demands to compromise the Maronite community’s autonomy in the Mount Lebanon region. After the war, Patriarch Hayek served as a representative of the Lebanese people at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he advocated for an independent Lebanese state. His advocacy helped to secure French support for the creation of Greater Lebanon in 1920.

Patriarch Hayek led the Maronite Catholic Church until his death in 1931, and in 2019, he was declared venerable by Pope Francis.

The other decrees approved by Pope Leo recognized:

• The martyrdom of Father Francisco González de Córdova and 79 companions, priests, religious, seminarians and lay faithful of the Diocese of Santander, Spain, killed “”n hatred of the faith” in 1936 and 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
• The heroic virtues of Salesian Father Costantine Vendrame, who was born in San Martino di Colle Umberto, Italy, in 1893, and in Dibrugarh, India, in 1957.
• The heroic virtues of Capuchin Friar Nazareno da Pula born in 1911 in Pula, Italy, and died in 1992 in Cagliari, Italy.
• The heroic virtues of Mother María Ana Alberdi Echezarreta, abbess of the Monastery of the Conceptionist Franciscan Sisters, who was born in Azcoitia, Spain in 1912, and died in Madrid, Spain in 1988.
• The heroic virtues of Carmelite Brother Jean-Thierry of the Child Jesus and of the Passion, who was born in Mfou-Awaé, Cameroon, in 1982, and in Legnano, Italy, in 2006.

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