Beatification of Patriarch Hoyek to be celebrated in Dimane on July 25

The general presidency of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family announced Wednesday that "Pope Leo XIV has approved designating July 25 as the date for the celebration of the announcement of the beatification of Patriarch Elias Hoyek" in Lebanon.

The Holy See "will send the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Marcello Semeraro, to represent it," and the Mass will be celebrated "by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai at 5 p.m. at the patriarchate's summer seat in Dimane," in the Bsharri region, in the highlands of northern Lebanon, according to a statement released for the occasion.

The Vatican announced on May 22 that it had recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Patriarch Hoyek, namely the healing of a Druze officer in the Lebanese army. He had previously been declared Venerable by Pope Francis in 2019. The "father of Greater Lebanon" would be "soon" beatified, Vatican News had then announced.

Patriarch Hoyek, who led the Maronite Church from 1899 until his death in 1931, had called, during the Versailles Conference that brought together the victors of World War I, for an independent Lebanon that would not be limited to the area of Mount Lebanon.