When East Meets East: Catholicos Mor Baselios Cleemis Joins Syriac Patriarchs at Mar Georgis Cathedral, Lebanon

In a moment as poignant as it was prayerful, His Eminent Beatitude Cardinal Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholicos, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, visited the historic Mar Georgis Cathedral in Bashoura – Deep Trench, Beirut, on the evening of Sunday, 23 March 2025. He was received with brotherly warmth by His Beatitude Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch.

Together, these two spiritual heads of the Syriac Catholic Churches stood before the altar and lifted their hearts in supplication—invoking the intercession of St. George the Martyr, not only for the flourishing of the Church and the faithful but for the quelling of unrest and the healing of a war-torn world.

What transpired was not a mere exchange of pleasantries, but an encounter deeply rooted in shared memory and sacred tradition. The Patriarch recounted to the Catholicos the arduous yet triumphant story of the Cathedral’s rebirth—once reduced to ruin in the long shadows of Lebanon’s civil war, now gloriously restored and reconsecrated in 2022. With evident reverence, the Catholicos praised the restoration, commending the Patriarch’s fidelity to the rich spiritual and architectural heritage of the Syriac Church.

The visit unfolded as a luminous sign of unity between the Eastern and Western expressions of the Syriac Christian tradition. It was a theological and ecclesial gesture—a testament to communion forged not through convenience but through a shared memory of suffering, perseverance, and hope.

Joining them were Monsignor Habib Murad, Patriarchal General Administrator and Secretary of the Patriarchate; Rev. Fr. Isaac, General Administrator of the Major Archieparchy of Trivandrum; and Fr. Karim Kulsh, Assistant Secretary of the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate.

Earlier in the day, at Rafic Hariri International Airport, His Beatitude Mor Ignatius Youssef III Younan personally welcomed Catholicos Mor Baselios Cleemis, who arrived in Lebanon for a brief yet spiritually significant visit.

The Catholicos’ journey to Beirut was also occasioned by his participation in the enthronement of His Beatitude Joseph Mor Gregorios as Catholicos of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 25 March 2025, at St. Mary’s Syriac Orthodox Cathedral, adjacent to the Patriarchal Residence in Atchané, Lebanon. The liturgy will be presided over by His Holiness Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. The event is expected to draw hierarchs from various Syriac Churches, state dignitaries, and delegations from India and abroad.

Also present at the airport reception were His Eminence Mor Clemis Daniel Kourieh, Archbishop of Beirut for the Syriac Orthodox Church, representing His Holiness Aphrem II, and Mr. Joseph, Chargé d’affaires at the Indian Embassy in Beirut.

Following a brief repose at the airport’s Hall of Honour, the Catholicos and the Patriarch made their way to the Patriarchal See at Al-Mathaf, Beirut, where they entered the Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch and offered prayers of thanksgiving for safe arrival and spiritual fraternity.

This encounter did not merely commemorate ecclesiastical protocol; it proclaimed something far greater—a renewal of bonds that reach beyond geography and liturgy, whispering to the heart of every faithful: that in Christ, what is divided shall be made whole, and what is ancient shall not wither but bloom again.

In every respect, it was a chapter written not with ink but with grace—etched into the unfolding story of the Syriac Church’s faithful witness across time and lands.