Michel Sabbah

His Beatitude

  • Michel Sabbah
  • ميشيل صباح
Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem
ArchdioceseJerusalem
SeeJerusalem
Appointed11 December 1987
Installed6 January 1988
Term ended21 June 2008
PredecessorGiacomo Giuseppe Beltritti
SuccessorFouad Boutros Twal
Orders
Ordination29 June 1955
by Alberto Gori
Consecration6 January 1988
by Pope John Paul II
Personal details
Born (1933-03-19) 19 March 1933 (age 93)
Nazareth
DenominationRoman Catholic
Styles of
Patriarch Michael Sabbah
Reference styleHis Beatitude
Spoken styleYour Beatitude
Religious styleMonsignor
Posthumous stylen/a

Michel Sabbah (Arabic: ميشيل صباح; born 19 March 1933) is a Palestinian Catholic prelate who served as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008, the first non-Italian to hold the position in more than five centuries. He is one of relatively few Christian prelates in the Middle East to have referred to Israeli actions in the Gaza war as a genocide.

Biography

Sabbah was born in Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine (currently Israel). He began his priestly studies at the Latin Patriarchal Seminary of Beit Jala in October 1949 and was ordained a priest for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in June 1955.

Priesthood

He was a parish priest for a few years before being sent to the University of St. Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon, to study Arabic language and literature. Shortly thereafter, he became director of schools for the Latin Patriarchate. He served in that position until the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. Sabbah then moved to Djibouti to teach Arabic and Islamic studies until 1973, when he began doctoral studies in Arabic philology at the Sorbonne. In 1980, he was named President of the Bethlehem University.

Patriarch

In 1987, Pope John Paul II appointed him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, making him the first native Palestinian to hold the office in centuries, although there had been calls for a Palestinian patriarch since the 1950s. When in 1998 the Pope named two cardinals in pectore, Margaret Hebblethwaite suspected Sabbah might have been one of them, saying that

...[Sabbah's] nomination might have upset Israel

Other sources, though, never believed either of the in pectore cardinals to be Sabbah, and in 2001 it would be revealed he was not one of them.

From 1999 to 2007, Sabbah was the International President of Pax Christi, a Catholic organisation promoting peace.

Retirement

Sabbah resigned as Patriarch on 19 March 2008, after reaching the age of 75, the age of retirement. Sabbah served as the Grand Prior of the chivalric Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, one of the knightly orders founded in 1099. On 11 December 2009, Sabbah together with other prominent Palestinian Christian leaders launched the Kairos Palestine Document against Israeli occupation.

In August 2025, Sabbah signed onto a statement from Jerusalem Voice for Justice, of which he is a member, that referred to the Gaza war as a genocide and said it could spread to other parts of Palestine.

Honours

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 The in pectore cardinals were in John Paul's 2001 consistory revealed as Marian Jaworski and Jānis Pujāts.

References

  1. ↑ Sabbah, Michel (2008). Faithful Witness: On Reconciliation and Peace in the Holy Land. New City Press. p. 19. ISBN 9781565483071.
  2. ↑ Rioli, Maria Chiara (2020). A Liminal Church: Refugees, Conversions and the Latin Diocese of Jerusalem, 1946–1956. p. 14. ISBN 9789004423718.
  3. ↑ Rioli (2020). A Liminal Church. p. 310.
  4. ↑ Hebblethwaite, Peter; Hebblethwaite, Margaret (2000). The next pope: a behind-the-scenes look at how the successor to John Paul II will be elected and where he will lead the church. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 138–139. ISBN 0060637773.
  5. ↑ Tempest, Rone (January 20, 1998). ""Secret" Cardinals Likely in China, Vietnam". Los Angeles Times. p. A6.
  6. ↑ Sabbah (2008). Faithful Witness. pp. 152–162.
  7. ↑ Wozniak-Bobinska, Marta (2018). "Jordan". In Lamport, Mark A. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South: Volume 2. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 420. ISBN 9781442271579.
  8. ↑ Rifat Odeh Kassis (2009). Kairos Palestine: Ten Years of Prophetic Voice (PDF). Palestinian Voices. 10 Years Publication.
  9. ↑ "A Jerusalem Voice for Justice: an ecumenical witness for equality and a just peace in Palestine/Israel | Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat". Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat -. 2025-08-28. Retrieved 2026-09-16.