Ignatius Aphrem II

Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the 122nd successor to St. Peter in the Apostolic See of Antioch, Born in Qamishli, Syria on May 3, 1965, the youngest son of Mr. & Mrs. Issa Karim, His Holiness lost his father at an early age and was raised, with the rest of his family, by his late and loving mother Khanema. He entered St. Ephrem’s Theological Seminary in Atchaneh, Lebanon in 1977, following his primary schooling in Kamishly. In 1982, His Holiness served the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo, Syria, for the next two years. From 1984 to 1988, His Holiness pursued higher studies at the Coptic Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, graduating with a Bachelor Degree of Divinity.

In 1985, His Holiness took the vows of a monk, and put himself in the service of the Church. He was ordained to the diaconate in Egypt, and later the same year, to the sacred priesthood in Qamishli. From 1988 to 1989, His Holiness served as both, the secretary of the late His Holiness, Moran Mor Zakka I Iwas, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and as a teacher at St. Ephrem’s Theological Seminary in Damascus, Syria. In 1991, He entered St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland, where he received a License of Sacred Theology Degree, in 1992, and his Doctor of Divinity Degree in 1994, following a defense of his doctoral thesis on The Symbolism of the cross in early Syriac Christianity.

On 21 March 2014, Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas died after a long illness. Following his death, the Holy Synod of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch was convened to elect a successor. The synod was held at St. Jacob Baradeus Monastery in Aatchane, Lebanon, presided over by Mor Baselios Thomas I, the then Catholicos of India and Mor Severius Jamil Hawa Archbishop of Baghdad and Basra, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens. The synod elected His Holiness to be the 123rd successor of St. Peter in the Apostolic See of Antioch on 31 March 2014.