CIRILLO III BEN LAKLAK

Cyril III BEN LAKLAK. — Patriarch of Alexandria, who lived in the 13th century, originally a priest named David who simoniacally obtained the Coptic patriarchate of Alexandria under the name of C. on 17 June 1235. He became notorious for his rapacity and shameless simony, which provoked open struggles within his clergy and led to his repeated arrests and fines by Muslim judicial authorities. In 1237 he ordained a metropolitan for Constantinople, thus entering into conflict with the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius, who excommunicated the metropolitan. The latter, however, with the support of the Franks who occupied the Holy Land, managed to retain his position and became the first of the Coptic metropolitans of Jerusalem. He died in 1243, obscurely and despised by all.