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Pietro Sfair

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Pietro Sfair
TitleArchbishop and Ordinarius for the Maronite faithful of Rome
Personal life
Born
Boutros Javad Sfeir

February 10, 1888
Kleiat, Keserwan, Lebanon
DiedMay 18, 1974
Rome, Italy
Religious life
ReligionChristianity
ChurchMaronite Church
OrdinationMarch 8, 1913
ConsecrationMay 24, 1953
Senior posting

Pietro Sfair (10 February 1888 - 18 May 1974 ) was a Lebanese Catholic prelate who was the Diocesan Bishop of the Maronite Catholic Church of Antioch in Rome, Italy, where he also served as Rector of the Maronite College.[1][2] Pope John XXIII appointed Sfair as the titular Archbishop of Nisibis.[3] Sfair was a Council Father (and the most senior Maronite cleric) at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.[4] He was instrumental in making the House of Mary pilgrimage site--and its significance for Christian-Muslim understanding--more widely known. As a consequence of his friendship with Guglielmo Marconi, Sfair was also an early proponent of the use of radio to spread the gospel message. Early in his clerical career he served as spiritual adviser to the teachers and students of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. In the middle of his clerical career, especially after becoming bishop and archbishop, Sfair played an important role in advocating for and supporting the beatification in 1965 of St. Charbel Makhlouf--the first Lebanese saint of the Roman Catholic Church, canonized in 1977. Later in life Sfair served as unofficial spiritual guide to actors, actresses and singers of the Italian entertainment industry. He was also an important mentor for the 77th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi.

Early life and background

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Sfair was born in Kleiat, Keserwan, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Empire. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on 8 March 1913. After his ordination, he had his graduate studies from 1913 to 1916 at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.[5]

The Roman clerical saying "as learned as a Maronite" well-describes Sfair. He spoke eight languages (Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, Arabic, French, Italian & English), and became a professor of Theology, oriental languages (Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic) and Islamic Law at both the University of Rome and Saint John Lateran University in Rome.[2][6][7] He served as spiritual advisor to the De La Salle Brothers at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.[8] Sfair worked as an Arabic translator for the Vatican's Society for the Propagation of the Faith and celebrated the Maronite mass twice monthly for Vatican Radio.[2] In 1934, Sfair assisted the Italian government in establishing Radio Bari.[9] Angelo Ugo Conz, retired admiral of the Regia Marina and senator of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, most likely nominated Sfair for a knighthood in the Order of the Crown of Italy in 1935 as well as attended the mass to celebrate Sfair's priestly silver jubilee in 1938.[10] Through an introduction from Admiral Conz, Sfair befriended Nobel laureate Guglielmo Marconi, who had an honorary rank of Commander in the Italian Royal Navy. Marconi won the Nobel Prize for his invention of the radio and during the First World War he outfitted the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) with radios for ship to ship long-distance communication. Sfair was one of the first Catholic prelates to understand radio's potential for spreading the gospel. In his later years Sfair served as the honorary rector of the Accademia Universale Guglielmo Marconi.

Sfair's views on theological questions were sought out by Pope John XXIII during the Second Vatican Council. He was instrumental during the drafting of the Second Vatican Council document Nostra Aetate to highlight the House of Mary (in Ephesus, Turkey) and Marian devotion as a matter of shared interest between Christians and Muslims.[11] [12]

Archbishop P. Sfair of the Maronite Rite (Rome) considered the reference which the declaration De non christianis made to the Muslims'adoration of the one and remunerating God as insufficient. Mention should also be made of Mohammed's affirmation of the virginal conception and birth of Christ through Mary, the most exalted among women. The Archbishop recalled the respect with which the earliest Muslims treated the Christians and the Christian beliefs. He insisted that the declaration should give greater consideration to that which the Muslims believed, to the truths which they proposed for belief, than to their less essential cultural factors.[13]

He was a strong advocate for good relations with Judaism and Islam.

According to the German newsmagazine "Der Spiegel",[14] in 1960s and 1970s Rome Sfair became something of a local celebrity, known for walking all around central Rome without concerning himself with vehicular traffic and occasionally visiting, as a guest of honor, the famous dance and music club "Piper Club" (also known as the Piper Music Hall).[15] The Piper Club [it] opened in 1965 during the "dolce vita" era and was a destination of choice for the international jet set interested in what was new in art, culture and music (for example, in April 1968 Pink Floyd performed at the club).[16] About the Piper Club, Sfair once remarked "I enjoy working in this world that is in so much need of gospel witness; I like talking to actors, actresses and singers--something of what I say will remain in their consciences" (<Mi piace lavorare in questo mondo che tanto bisogno di una testimonianza evangelica. Mi piace parlare ogli attori, alle attrici y ai cantanti; qualcose i quello che dico rimarra nelle loro coscienze>)[17] Moreover, Sfair established friendships with Christian Democracy leader and future prime minister Aldo Moro (who as Foreign Minister sought his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and actress Sylva Koscina, who fondly called him "my grand dad" ('nonno' in Italian).[2]

Family

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Sfair's birth name in Arabic is Boutros Javad Sufayr. Sfair's father was Georges Sfeir and his mother was Philoumene Sfeir.[18]. The names of some of his siblings were Salim, Chaia, Marie, Raquel, Antoun. Emile (Emilio) and Isaie. He received his primary and secondary education in Lebanon, first at St. Gergoes's School in Kleiat, Keserwan District (founded by an illustrious ancestor Abi-Dagher Sfeir) and then at St. Joseph's School in Cornet Chawan, Matn District. Beginning in 1903, when he was 15 years old, he studied in Italy at the Collegio Maronita di Roma. He would reside in Rome for the next 72 years of his life.

Entering into the religious life was a Sfeir family tradition. A great uncle of Sfair was Michel Sfeir (1854–1920), a Maronite priest and scholar who catalogued thousands of ancient Arabic and Syriac manuscripts found in Lebanese monasteries. A cousin was Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.[19] Other family members, however, were engaged in worldly pursuits.

One of his younger brothers was Emilio Sfeir, a hero of Bolivian counter-intelligence during the Guerra del Chaco (Chaco War) against Paraguay.[20] [21] Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez was his niece, and Mauricio Gonzalez Sfeir is a great nephew. Another great nephew was the Bolivian-Argentine comedian and entertainer el Gran Sandy.

Swiss-Lebanese banker Salim Sfeir, who may be the grandson of Sfair's older brother Salim, donated funds to renovate the library at the Maronite College in Rome.[22]

Although Sfair died in Rome, where a funeral mass was celebrated for him at the Maronite College Chapel of St. Anthony in the Piazza San Pietro in Vincoli, his remains were shipped to Beirut, where they were received by all the Lebanese bishops and the civil authorities. A second funeral mass was celebrated for him in his home town of Kleiat, at St. George's, the church of the Sfeir family convent (couvent des Sfeir), built in the 17th century by chevalier Nader Sfeir. He was buried in Lebanon in accordance with his Last Will and Testament. At the time of Sfair's death, three siblings remained alive--his brothers Chaia (Sin el Fil, Horsh Tabet) and Isaie (Kleiat), and his sister Marie.[2]

Religious life

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In 1938, Pope Pius XI appointed Sfair a Prelate of Honour of His Holiness. On 11 March 1953 Pope Pius XII appointed Sfair Titular Bishop of Epiphania in Syria (Hama) and Ordinary for the Maronite faithful of Rome. Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, Eugène Cardinal Tisserant, consegrated Sfair a Bishop on May 24, 1953; Co-consecrators were Vice Regent for the Diocese of Rome, Luigi Traglia, and the Auxiliary Bishop of the Ostia and Porto und Santa Rufina, Pietro Villa FSCJ. Pope John XXIII appointed Sfair on March 11, 1960 as Titular Archbishop of Nisibis Nisibis dei Maroniti.[2]

Pietro Sfair participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as a Council Father.[4] He was the most senior of the four Maronite bishops who participated. The Maronite contribution to the Second Vatican Council is especially significant in the drafting of Nostra Aetate.

In addition, Sfair played a pivotal role in the path to sainthood of the first Lebanese saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Charbel Makhlouf had first been declared a "Servant of God" by Pope Pius XI in 1925, when Sfair was a 37-year-old priest in Rome. In 1938, on the occasion of Sfair's silver jubilee as a priest, Maronite Patriarch Anthony Peter Arida named Sfair a Chorbishop of the Maronite Church and Pope Pius XI named Sfair a Domestic Prelate, granting to Sfair the title Monsignor of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1953, Sfair was appointed Bishop and he leveraged his new position to advocate for and support Charbel Makhlouf being declared "Venerable" by Pope Pius XII in 1954. In 1960, Sfair was appointed Archbishop and he leveraged his new position to advocate for and support Charbel Makhlouf being declared "Blessed" by Pope Paul VI on December 5, 1965, at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. The canonization of Charbel Makhlouf by Pope Paul VI took place on October 9, 1977 - he is the first Lebanese saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Sfair did not live to see this result of his life's work, as he had died three years earlier. Sfair's advocacy and promotion of St Charbel, a saint who is venerated in Lebanon by Christians of all sects, Moslems and Druze, alike, can be broadly interpreted in the same light as Sfair's contributions to inter-faith understanding, as seen in his role in the drafting of Nostra Aetate and his transmission of knowledge about the House of Mary.

From approximately 1954 to 1974, Sfair served as the Rector of the Pontifical Maronite College in Rome (Collegio Maronita di Roma-- Pontificio Collegio dei Maroniti) and his Vice Rector was the future Maronite Patriarch of Antioch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi. His assistant in Rome was a young Maronite Catholic seminarian and deacon Faouzi Elia, who went on to become pastor of St. Sharbel Church in Peoria, Illinois and Chorbishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, California.[23]

Awards and Honors

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In Rome on May 11, 1935, His Majesty Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy, conferred upon Sfair the title of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia (Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy).[2]

Monsignor Sfair was also a Prelate of Honour of His Holiness (Domestic Prelate) (1938).[2]

Sfair was the Honorary Rector of the Accademia Universale Guglielmo Marconi in Rome.[24] 1966-1974

Selected Writings

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Sfair was a prolific writer and scholar. In addition to writing about the theology and religious practices of the Maronite Antiochene Rite and the lives of Catholic saints, Sfair occasionally wrote about migrant literature and political satire in Lebanon and Syria. Among his published works are the following:

Popular Songs about Social and Political Satire of Lebanon and Syria (1931)[25]

The Antiochene Maronite Rite (1933)[26]

Emigration and Love of Country in the Poetry of the Lebanese Dialect (1942)[27]

The Syriac-Maronite mass, annotated (1946)[28]

Biography of St. Abraham of Clermont (1962)[29]

Syriac-Maronite traditions regarding the martyrdom of Saint Peter (1969)

References

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  1. ^ "Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez". Champaign-Urbana News Gazette. December 12, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Fahd, Butros (1974). Arcivescovo Pietro Sfair grande orientalista e predicatore, vita e opere [Archbishop Pietro Sfair great orientalist and preacher, life and work] (in Italian). Rome: Matabi al-Karim al-Hadithath.
  3. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1)
  4. ^ a b Melloni, Alberto (January 27, 2021). Atlante Storico del Concilio Vaticano II [Atlas of the Second Vatican Council] (in Italian). Milan: Editoriale Jaca Book. ISBN 978-88-16-60510-7.
  5. ^ "Pontificium Institutum Biblicum: Vita functus". Biblica. 56. St. Martin's Press: 288. 1975. Retrieved August 7, 2024.
  6. ^ Martinez Sanchez, Santiago (2013). "Conversacion en Pamplona con Jose Luis Illanes" [Conversation in Pamplona with Jose Luis Illanes] (PDF). Anuario de Historia de la Iglesia (in Spanish). 22: 359–402. doi:10.15581/007.22.2230. ISSN 1133-0104. Retrieved August 2, 2024. page 371, footnote 51
  7. ^ Gabrieli, Francesco (1975). "Gli Studi Arabo-Islamici Nella Universita Di Roma" [Arabic-Islamic Studies at the University of Rome]. Oriente Moderno (in Italian). 55 (1/2): 1–7. doi:10.1163/22138617-0550102002. JSTOR 25816239. Retrieved August 17, 2024. page 7
  8. ^ Fahd, Butros (1974). Arcivescovo Pietro Sfair grande orientalista e predicatore, vita e opere [Archbishop Pietro Sfair great orientalist and preacher, life and work] (in Italian). Rome: Matabi al-Karim al-Hadithath. p. 62.
  9. ^ Perin, Raffaella (April 16, 2024). The Popes on Air: The History of Vatican Radio from its Origins to World War II. New York City: Fordham University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1531507152.
  10. ^ Arcivescovo Pietro Sfair grande orientalista e predicatore, vita e opere [Archbishop Pietro Sfair great orientalist and preacher, life and work] (in Italian). Rome: Matabi al-Karim al-Hadithath. 1974.
  11. ^ Stackaruk, Christian (2022). Retrieving MENA Catholics' Contributions to 'Nostra Aetate'. thesis (PhD in Theological Studies thesis). Toronto, Ontario: University of St. Michael's College and the University of Toronto. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
  12. ^ George-Tvrtkovic, Rita (Autumn 2017). "Merye Ana Evi, Marian Devotion and the Making of "Nostra aetate" 3". The Catholic Historical Review. 103 (4): 755–781. doi:10.1353/cat.2017.0186. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  13. ^ Farrugia, Joseph (1990). "The Evolution of the Conciliar Texts Regarding the Muslims" (PDF). Melita Theologica. XLI (2): 115–139. Retrieved September 20, 2024. p. 125-126: Archbishop P. Sfair of the Maronite Rite (Rome) considered the reference which the declaration made to the Muslims'adoration of the one and remunerating God as insufficient. Mention should also be made of Mohammed's affirmation of the virginal conception and birth of Christ through Mary, the most exalted among women. The Archbishop recalled the respect with which the earliest Muslims treated the Christians and the Christian beliefs. He insisted that the declaration should give greater consideration to that which the Muslims believed, to the truths which they proposed for belief, than to their less essential cultural factors.
  14. ^ "Personalien: Pietro Sfair" [Personalities: Pietro Sfair]. Der Spiegel 53/1972 (in German). Germany: Spiegel Politik. December 24, 1972. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  15. ^ Un cardinale in discoteca [A cardinal at the dance hall] (newsreel). Sette G / S0335 (in Italian). Archivio storico Istituto Luce. Event occurs at 00:03:02.
  16. ^ Popham, Peter (October 24, 2006). "La dolce vita (with thanks to Pete and Kate)". The Independent newspaper. London, United Kingdom: The Independent Company. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  17. ^ Fahd, Butros (1974). Arcivescovo Pietro Sfair grande orientalista e predicatore, vita e opere [Archbishop Pietro Sfair great orientalist and preacher, life and work] (in Italian). Rome: Matabi al-Karim al-Hadithath. p. 18.
  18. ^ Crawford, Robert (April 1955). "William of Tyre and the Maronites". Speculum. 30 (2). The University of Chicago Press: 222–228. doi:10.2307/2848470. JSTOR 28448470. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  19. ^ Roberts, Sam (May 15, 2019). "Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, 98, a Voice for Lebanese Christians, Dies". The New York Times.
  20. ^ Mejillones-Quispe, Guillermo (March 2017). El Servicio de Inteligencia Entre 1927-1938: El Espionaje, Contraespionaje de Bolivia Durante la Guerra del Chaco [The Intelligence Service Between 1927-1938: Bolivian Espionage and Counterespionage during the Chaco War] (Licenciatura thesis). La Paz, Bolivia: Universidad Mayor de San Andres Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educacion Carrera de Historia. pp. 121–128. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  21. ^ Llajtamasi, Homero (November 21, 2024). "Las aventuras de película de Emilio Sfeir" [The larger-than-life adventures of Emilio Sfeir]. Opinion newspaper (in Spanish). Cochabamba, Bolivia. Retrieved November 28, 2024.
  22. ^ "Inauguration de la Bibliothèque Salim Sfeir pour le patrimoine maronite a Rome" [Inauguration of the Salim Sfeir Library for the Maronite heritage in Rome] (in French). Beirut, Lebanon: L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper. February 14, 2017.
  23. ^ Willems, Jennifer (July 27, 2016). "1,700 Maronite Rite Catholics Visit Peoria For Feast of St. Sharbel Celebration". The Catholic Post. Diocese of Peoria, Illinois. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  24. ^ "Testimonial Letter from Emilio Ambron". www.sannyas.wiki. The Sannyas Wiki. October 3, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2024. Rettore "Honoris Causa" Mons. Pietro Sfair Primate nel Libano Arciescovo di Nisibi
  25. ^ Sfair, Pietro (April 1931). "Canzoni Popolari di Satira Sociale e Politica del Libano e della Siria" [Popular Songs about Social and Political Satire of Lebanon and Syria]. Oriente Moderno (in Italian). 11 (4). Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino: 196–216. doi:10.1163/22138617-01104002. JSTOR 25808592. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  26. ^ Sfair, Pietro, ed. (1933). Disciplina Antiochena Maroniti [The Antiochene Maronite Rite] (in Italian). Rome: Tip. poliglotta vaticana. p. 1296.
  27. ^ Sfair, Pietro (December 1942). "Emigrazione e Amor di Patria Nella Poesia Dialettale del Libano" [Emigration and Love of Country in the Poetry of the Lebanese Dialect]. Oriente Moderno (in Italian). 22 (12). Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino: 518–534. JSTOR 25811249. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  28. ^ Sfair, Pietro (1946). La Messa Siro-Maronita annotata cenno storico sui maroniti [The Syro-Maronite Mass annotated with historical background of the maronites] (in Italian). Rome: Segretariato generale dell'ottavario.
  29. ^ Sfair, Pietro (1962). "Sant'Abramo di St-Cirgue". Enciclopedia dei Santi — Bibliotheca Sanctorum (in Italian). Vatican City: Edizioni Citta Nuova. 57320. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
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