The Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of São Paulo ( pt, Eparquia Nossa Senhora do Líbano em São Paulo; la, Eparchia Dominae Nostrae Libanensis Sancti Pauli Maronitarum) is a Maronite Church ecclesiastical territory or eparchy of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Its

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

. The current

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Edgard Madi Edgard Madi or Edgard Amine Madi (born 23 March 1956 in Beit Mery, Lebanon) is the bishop of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of São Paulo in Brazil. Biography Edgard Madi ended his high school and began his studies at Collèg ...

. The Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of São Paulo is a suffragan eparchy in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

Archdiocese of São Paulo In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

archdiocese.

Territory and statistics

Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in São Paulo includes all Maronite Catholic believers living in Brazil. Its eparchial seat is São Paulo, where the

cathedra A ''cathedra'' is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principa ...

is found in the Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral. The eparchy includes Maronite parishes in Brazil, which are situated mainly in the southeastern part of the country: São Paulo, Bauru, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Guarulhos and Piracicaba. The territory of the eparchy is divided into 10 parishes and in 2013 there were 489,000 Maronite Catholics.

History

On 30 May 1962,

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

established the Maronite Apostolic Exarchate (the equivalent in the Eastern Churches of a Vicariate Apostolic) for Maronite Catholics in Brazil and appointed Bishop

Francis Mansour Zayek Archbishop Francis Mansour Zayek (Arabic: فرنسيس منصور الزايك ; born October 18, 1920, Manzanillo, Cuba – died on September 14, 2010) was a prelate of the Maronite Church. He was the founding eparch of the Maronite Catholic Ep ...

to head it. He was the first bishop appointed to operate outside the historical areas of the Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East to serve in the Maronite

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. He was officially ordained bishop on 5 August 1962 as an auxiliary bishop of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people grc, Ῥωμαῖοι, , native_name_lang = , image = Pompeii family ...

, and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Callinicum dei Maroniti Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Rom ...

. Zayek served as bishop for the Maronite Catholics of that country until 1966, when he was transferred by the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

to the United States.

Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

Anthony Joubeir was appointed

vicar-general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

to Maronite faithful until 1968. He was succeeded on March 1, 1968, by Bishop

João Chedid João Chedid, OMM (18 February 1914 – 31 July 1991) was the first Maronite Bishop of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of São Paulo in Brazil. Life Chedid was born in Kherbet-Kanafar, Lebanon. On 20 December 1941 he was orda ...

. who was already bishop and Vicar General of the Maronite Patriarch in Lebanon and since 1956 was auxiliary bishop and held the Vicar General of the Maronite Patriarch in Lebanon and Ordinary for Eastern Catholic faithful in Brazil. These two Maronite bishops, Zayek and Chedid, were exarchs and auxiliary bishops of the Ordinary Catholics of the East in Brazil, which at that time was the archbishop of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. On 29 November 1971,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

raised the exarchate to the rank of an eparchy canonically elected by the apostolic constitution Quod provident, of November 29, 1971, became then an ecclesiastical circumscription of the Maronite Church, one of the sui juris Churches of the

, separating itself from the

Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Brazil The Ordinariate of Brazil for the faithful of the Eastern rite or Brazil of the Eastern Rite (Portuguese: Ordinariato para os Fiéis de Ritos Orientais no Brasil) is an ordinariate (diocese-like structure of the Catholic Church) for the Eastern ...

, erected on November 14, 1951. Under these conditions the bishop or eparch is the ordinary of the diocese. Bishop João Chedid resigned in 1990 by reason of advanced age and poor health and died in Lebanon on 30 July 1991. The third bishop of the Maronite Church was

Joseph Mahfouz Joseph Mahfouz, OLM (born 20 February 1932 in Ghadir, Lebanon - died 25 August 2010, Ghadir, Lebanon) was a clergyman of the Maronite rite and eparch of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of São Paulo. He was the third eparch of t ...

who was elected on June 9, 1990, and consecrated on August 12, 1990, in Lebanon. He arrived in Brazil on October 6, 1990, taking possession on the 21st of that month and remained in front of the Maronite Archbishopric of Brazil, retiring after completing 75 years old in December 2006. The fourth Maronite bishop of Brazil is Dom

who officially assumed the duties of the highest Maronite post in Brazil, on December 10, 2006.

Status

At present, in addition to the cathedral in São Paulo, there are 8 Maronite parishes throughout the country.

Leadership

, O.M.M. (29 November 1971 – 27 February 1988), Archbishop (personal title) (27 February 1988 – 9 June 1990 retired) *

, O.L.M. (9 June 1990 – 14 October 2006 resigned) *

(since 14 October 2006)

References

External links

GCatholic.org

igrejamaronita.org.br
Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Sao Paulo Eastern Catholic dioceses in Brazil Immigration to Brazil Christian organizations established in 1962 Our Lady of Lebanon of Sao Maronite Church in Brazil Churches in São Paulo