New Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

The Synod convened in the Balamand monastery in north Lebanon on December 17, 2012, and chose the Orthodox Bishop of Europe, Youhanna al-Yazji to succeed Patriarch Ignatius IV. The election process took a few hours only.

The new Patriarch, who becomes Patriarch Youhanna X, was born in 1955 in Syria. He studied theology in Balamand in Lebanon, at the theological faculty founded by his predecessor. In 1983, he received a doctorate in theology in Saloniki in Greece, where he also studied church music. That same year he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Latakia in Syria. He then served as dean of the theology faculty in Balamand for a number of years.

In 2008, he was ordained bishop for the Antiochene Orthodox Church in West and Central Europe.