Elias Hoayek, new blessed: Leo XIV honors the patriarch of Greater Lebanon

The Pope greeted the beatification, on Saturday, July 25, 2026 in Lebanon, of the Maronite patriarch who obtained in 1920 the proclamation of Greater Lebanon.

The Fact

Pope Leon XIV paid tribute, at the conclusion of the Angelus on this Sunday, July 26, 2026, to the new blessed Elias Hoayek (Ilyas al-Huwayik, 1843-1931), Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites from 1899 until his death, beatified the day before, Saturday, July 25, 2026, in Lebanon. The Pope described him as a man of "dialogue and hope," according to Vatican News in Arabic. Vatican News in English and French editions, dated July 26, broadcast the news. Hoayek had led the Lebanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in October 1919. He then obtained from the French authorities and General Henri Gouraud, then High Commissioner for the Levant, the proclamation of Greater Lebanon on September 1, 1920, from the Pine Residence in Beirut.

Our Reading (in the light of the magisterium)

Pope Leon XIV, who has ceaselessly pleaded for peace in the Middle East since his election (even this Sunday regarding Lebanon and Gaza), has made with this beatification a highly symbolic choice. The new blessed reminds us that the Christian presence in the Levant is not an accident of history, but a foundation of Lebanon itself. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church emphasizes that the pastor, in his proper duties, as well as the lay faithful, is called to animate temporal realities according to the Gospel. The example of Hoayek shows that a patriarch can, without spiritual compromise, be a builder of the nation. This signal, at a time when the Land of Cedars is oscillating between war at its borders and internal confessional fragility, is a call to the responsibility of the Christians of the East and to the vigilance of the Christians of the West.