Athanasius II Dabbas of Antioch

From OrthodoxWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

His Beatitude Athanasius II Dabbas of Antioch was Patriarch of the Church of Antioch from 1611 to 1619. [1]

Life

Nothing is known of the life of Athanasius before he became patriarch of Antioch other than the manner of his ascension to the patriarchal throne. Athanasius II was elected Patriarch after he promised to the people of Damascus that he would pay the annual deficit of the Kharaj (agricultural land) tax required of the Christians by the Ottomans. His consecration as patriarch was in September 1611.

In 1612, Athanasius appointed and then consecrated Abdel-Karim Meletios Karmah (Euthymius III) as bishop of Aleppo, but with whom he later came into dispute, either for financial reasons or for his contacts with Franciscans. When the dispute came to the Patriarch of Constantinople Timothy II in 1614, Meletios also appeared in Constantinople when Athanasius traveled there. In the end the dispute was mediated and the two hierarchs came to agreement. In regard the presence of Latin missionaries in Syria, Athanasius had a positive attitude toward them upon which he probably held a pro-Catholic synod in 1617.

In the end, Athanasius was unable to uphold his promise to pay the Kharaj tax required of the Christians. In 1619, the Ottoman governor of Damascus placed him in prison. After paying a large ransom he was allowed to move to Tripoli in Lebanon where he died of illness later in 1619.

Note

  1. He is known as Athanasius II in the patriarchal lists of Korolevski and Skaff, as Athanasius III in the list of Costantius.
Succession box:
Athanasius II Dabbas of Antioch
Preceded by:
Dorotheus V
Patriarch of Antinoch
1611-1619
Succeeded by:
Ignatius III (Atiyah)
Help with box



Source