AKĪGĀN, ANDREA. - First patriarch of the Catholic Syrians, b. at Mardin in 1622, d. there in 1677. Having converted to Catholicism, he entered the Maronite College of Rome in 1646. Returning to Lebanon in 1649, and ordained a priest, he was sent to Aleppo. In 1656 he was consecrated bishop for the Syrians converted from Jacobitism, who through his work had grown so greatly in number. The Jacobite patriarch Simon I, residing in Aleppo, suspended him, and although a firman of the Sultan restored to him the possession of his church (1656), the Jacobites were not slow to wage war against him, so that in 1657 he had to flee to Lebanon. He returned in triumph the following year, and installed himself in his church with extraordinary pomp (1659). He introduced eucharistic benediction, holy water, the rosary, the Latin pontifical insignia, etc. In 1662 he was elected patriarch; on 3 Aug. of the same year the sultan granted him the firman: and in 1677 Alexander VII sent him the confirmation and the pallium. He died in that same year, after having suffered and struggled so much as bishop and as patriarch, because the firmans granted to him gave him authority also over the Jacobites.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: F. De Tarrāzi, At-salāsil at-tārīhijjah, fī asāqifat al-abraṭijjat as-suryānijjah (Le serie storiche circa i vescovi delle diocesi siro), Beirut 1910, pp. 178-99; D. E. Naqqāsan, 'Inajāt ar-Ruḥmān fī hidājat as-Surjān (La Provvidenza del Misericordioso nella conversione dei Siri), ivi 1910, pp. 34-69; Ad-Duwaihi (compagno di apostolato di A.), Tārīh al-madrasah al-mārānijjah fī Rumijjah (Storia del Collegio maronita in Roma), ed. L. Cheikho, in al-Maṭriq, 21 (1923), pp. 213-15; A. Rabbath, Documents inédits, I, fasc. II, Parigi-Lipsia-Londra 1905-1907, pp. 94-103, 453-70, 510; II, fasc. II, ivi 1910-11, pp. 4, 6, 13, 78, 79.

Pietro Sfair

@incollection{ec1_akigan_andrea, author = {Sfair, Pietro}, title = {AkĪGĀN, andrea}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {616}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/akigan-andrea} }

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Akīgān, Andrea

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