STEFANO AD-DUWAIH. – Maronite Patriarch, born at Ihden (Lebanon) in 1630.
He entered the Maronite College of Rome in 1641. He returned to Lebanon in 1654; in 1662 he was sent by the patriarch G. Sib'all to Aleppo, where he converted many Melkites, Nestorians, and Jacobites; in 1668 he was elected bishop of Cyprus, and in 1670 patriarch of Antioch for the Maronites.
The theological dispute held in 1683 against Cyril V, patriarch of the dissident Melkites, before Emir Ahmad b. Ma'n, deserves particular attention; as a result, Cyril V and four of his bishops converted (A. Martin, Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, I, Paris 1838, p. 87 ff.).
Among S.’s works are: Manārat al-Aqdās (“Beacon of the Sanctuary,” 2 vols., ed. R. Šartūnī, Beirut 1895–96), an extensive explanation of the Maronite Mass; Silsilah baṭārikah aṭ-ṭā'īfah al-mārūnijjah (“Series of the Patriarchs of the Maronite Nation,” ed. R. Šartūnī, ibid. 1911), for which the author was able to consult inscriptions and manuscripts now lost; Ta'rīh al-azminah (“Annals,” ed. F. Tautel, ibid. 1951); Kitāb-al-iḥtīfāg, of which there is a Latin version in Vat. lat. 7411 under the title Vindiciae Maronitarum.