AKIĞAN, 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 in Rome in 1646. Returning to Lebanon in 1649, he was ordained priest and sent to Aleppo. In 1656 he was consecrated bishop for the Syrians converted from Jacobitism, whose numbers had grown considerably through his efforts. The Jacobite patriarch SIMONE I, residing in Aleppo, suspended him, and although a firman from the Sultan restored him to his church (1656), the Jacobites soon waged war against him, so that in 1657 he had to flee to Lebanon. He returned triumphantly the following year and installed himself in his church with extraordinary pomp (1659). He introduced the Eucharistic blessing, holy water, the rosary, Latin pontifical insignia, etc. In 1662 he was elected patriarch; on 3 August 1677 Alexander VII sent him confirmation and the pallium. He died in the same year, after having suffered and struggled so much both as bishop and as patriarch, since the firmans granted to him gave him authority even over the Jacobites.
AKIĞAN, ANDREA
BIBL.: F. De Tarrazi, *An-salātil al-tārīhijah, fi asāqifat al-abratijat as-survānijah* (Le serie storiche circa i vescovi delle diocesi sive), Beirut 1910, pp. 178-99; D. E. Naqqāšan, *Inajāt ar-Ruhmān fi hidājat as-Surjān* (La Provvidenza del Misericordioso nella conversione dei Siri), ibid. 1910, pp. 34-69; Ad-Duwaihi (A.’s companion in apostolate), *Tārīh al-madrasah al-mārijājīh fi Rumijah* (Storia del Collegio maronita in Roma), ed. L. Cheikho, in *Al-Masriq*, 21 (1923), pp. 213-15; A. Rabbath, *Documents inédits*, I, fasc. II, Paris-Leipzig-London 1905-1907, pp. 94-103, 453-70, 510; II, fasc. II, ibid. 1910-11, pp. 4, 6, 13, 78, 79.