GARWECH, IGNACIO MICHELE. — Syriac Catholic Patriarch. Born on 3 Jan. 1731 in Aleppo to Jacobite parents, he was ordained priest in 1757 and shortly afterward secretly converted to Catholicism. He endeavored in vain to convert the Jacobite Patriarch George II, by whom he was consecrated bishop of Aleppo, where he continued to labor for union. Later, with his flock, he openly declared himself Catholic and received from Pope Pius VI jurisdiction over Aleppo.
He suffered many persecutions and was imprisoned several times by the Jacobites and their Patriarch George III, after whose death he was elected by the majority of Jacobite bishops to succeed him in 1781. He accepted only after they permitted him to pass to Catholicism. In 1783 Garwech was consecrated patriarch in the Deir al-Safran convent near Madrid. Pope Pius VI approved the election on 1 Sept. of the same year. However, the solemn Jacobite respecter, elected by a minority, was the only one recognized by the Turkish Sultan: Garwech was obliged to flee to Lebanon, where he took up residence in Sarfett. He died on 4 Sept. 1800. With him begins the uninterrupted series of Syriac Catholic patriarchs.