page_title: Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Arabic-English history information sign at the Melkite Greek Catholic St. Thomas Cathedral in Tyre, South Lebanon, reading "Saint Apostle, Greek Catholic Melkite Church Built in 12th century The church was built around the year 1752 With the funding of a merchant named George Mashakka. Still part of the church Crusade preserved under the current construction"
context_page_description: Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre is a metropolitan see of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. In 2009 there were 3,100 baptized. It is currently governed by Archeparch Michael Abrass, BA.
context_section_description: The historical origin of the archeparchy is traced back to the New Testament. In Acts of Apostles, the church of Tyre (also Tyros) is mentioned in the missionary journey of Paul the Apostle "From Miletus about Caesarea to Jerusalem" (Acts 21.3 to 7 EU). Tyre was an ancient metropolitan see in Roman and Byzantine Empire. During the Crusades an archdiocese of the Latin rite was erected . The Roman Catholic Church built around 1124 the Archdiocese of Tyre, the territory encompassed the city and region of Tyre. Since Tyre was conquered in 1291 by the Muslim Mamluks, the archdiocese became titular.
  When tensions within the Melkite Patriarchy escalated at the turn from the 17th to the 18th century, Tyre was at the center of the schism: its archbishop Euthymios Saifi had been working on regaining communion with the Holy See in Rome at least since 1683, when he founded the monastery Deir el Moukhallès near Sidon/Saida. In 1701, by secret decree he was appointed by the Congretation Propaganda Fide to be the Apostolic Administrator of the Melkites.
  In 1724, one year after Saifi's death, his nephew Seraphim Tanas, who had studied in Deir el Moukhallès, was elected as Patriarch Cyril VI of Antioch. He quickly affirmed the union with Rome and thereby the separation from the Greek Orthodox Church, which was officially recognised by the Vatican five years later.
  Initially the Archeparchy of Tyre was united with the seats of Sidon and Akka; it later ceded portions of territory for the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Sidon in 1752 and Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Akka in 1759.
  The Melkite Cathedral of Saint Thomas was built in 1752 and features a facade of Gothic arches. It is situated next to the offices of the Archeparchy and the residence of the Archeparch. During excavations underneath the cathedral remains of the original church from the 12th century were discovered and preserved.
  
  In the ten years before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Bishop Georges Haddad developed close relations with the Shia leader Sayyed Musa Sadr. He also had a new seat of the archeparchy constructed and the historical Cathedral of Saint Thomas repaired.
  During the 1982 Lebanon War, on 7 June, Haddad reportedly succeeded in halting a tank attack by the invading Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) single-handedly in a bold appeal to the IDF commander in order to avoid civilian casualties.
  During the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, the Saint Thomas Cathedral apparently provided safe shelter to many civilians, as illustrated in the graphic novel drama Yallah Bye by the Franco-Lebanese writer Joseph Safieddine and South Korean comics creator Kyungeun Park. Following the war, many community members moved elsewhere, especially to Australia and Canada, as well as to the national capital Beirut. While  the Archeparchy still counted a flock of some 7,000 in 2005, this number had more than halved to less than 3,000 by 2017.
  Nevertheless, the Waqf as the financial endowment of the Archeparchy, which owns land and other property holdings, is still one of the main non-governmental stakeholders in the informal governance of Tyre.
caption: Information sign at St. Thomas
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