10 years after his kidnapping was announced, a name has returned Bishop Boulos Yazigi, The Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo, and brother of Patriarch John
Pictures of Bishop Boulos Yazigi were circulated, claiming to be from a Syrian prison, 10 years after he and Bishop Gregorius John Ibrahim disappeared by gunmen, while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission north of the Syrian city of Aleppo, near the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish border.
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate: We pray for the kidnapped bishops
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, following the circulation of pictures of Bishop Boulos Yazigi, issued a statement in which it confirmed that the posts that have been circulating recently on social media claiming that the bishop was found alive, after the Patriarchate directly investigated the reality of the matter and identified the person concerned in the hospital and examined him accurately. Medically and scientifically, it is baseless, and the person referred to is not Bishop Boulos Yazigi.
The Patriarchate added: “The Church of Antioch prays, works, and places this issue at the forefront of its concerns, and asks God with the hearts of its children for the sake of the two kidnapped bishops, Boulos Yazigi and John Ibrahim, whose case sums up the case of every kidnapped and afflicted person, and sums up a small part of the cross of this East, which feels the dawn of resurrection.”
She emphasized: “Finally, we raise our prayers to the child in the cave, and we are in the midst of preparing to celebrate his birth, that peace will come in the country of peace, because that is good for all the people of this beloved country.”
Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Syria: We hope to reveal the truth about their kidnapping
For his part, Patriarch Mar Ephrem Ignatius, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, confirmed the case of the Bishop of Aleppo and the kidnapped people, Boulos Yazigi and Mar Gregorius John Ibrahim. The Church Fathers highlighted the importance of what is being circulated about finding them, and directed the Church Fathers to follow up on this issue with the authorities, hoping to uncover the truth about their kidnapping. .
Meanwhile, Bishop Atallah Hanna, the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, called for… The Turkish authorities revealed the fate of the kidnapped bishops of Aleppo, confirming that the kidnapping took place in an area close to the Turkish border.
Who is the kidnapped bishop, brother of the Patriarch of Antioch?
Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi, who was born in 1959 in Latakia, is the Greek Orthodox Bishop of the Diocese of Aleppo and brother of Patriarch John X Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Yazji obtained a degree in civil engineering from Tishreen University, then moved on to study theology. He obtained master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He published his doctoral thesis, which he wrote in Greek, entitled “The Ethological Foundations of Christian Ethics according to Chrysostom.” He also taught Byzantine music. And the art of Byzantine icon painting.
In 1992, he began teaching a group of subjects at the Faculty of Theology at Balamand University, and after a while he became Dean of the Faculty of Theology and headed the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand from 1994 to 2001.
Bishop Gregorius John Ibrahim
As for Bishop Gregorius John Ibrahim, he was born in Qamishli in 1948, and in 1962 he joined the Saint Ephrem Priestly Institute in Zahle, Lebanon. He graduated in 1967 after obtaining a diploma in theology and philosophy with a very good grade.
In 1973, he received a scholarship and moved to the Oriental Institute in Rome, specializing in Eastern ecclesiastical sciences and Eastern legal law.
In late 1978, he was elected as the legitimate bishop of the Diocese of Aleppo, and His Holiness Patriarch Jacob III ordained him in the Cathedral of St. Ephrem the Syrian, with the participation of six venerable pontiffs, and the presence of the papal nuncio to Syria, the president of the Irish Institute in Rome, and the heads of the sister denominations in Aleppo, in a solemn ceremony.
During the Syrian crisis that began in 2011, he played a major societal and humanitarian role. He sought to build many community dialogues, and contributed to the release of some of the kidnapped and imprisoned people, until he himself became a victim of kidnapping.