Search Results - Mourad, Jacques

Julian Yacoub Mourad

Julian Yacoub Mourad (born Jacques Mourad, 28 June 1968) is a Syriac Catholic monk and prelate who has been the Archbishop of Homs since 2023. He was previously the prior of the Monastery of Saint Elian, near al-Qaryatayn, Syria, from 2000 to 2015.

He was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria, as a member of a Syriac Catholic family that was originally from Turkey. Mourad graduated from a Catholic seminary in Lebanon and shortly after became a deacon, a monk, and a priest. He was a member of a monastic community founded by the Italian Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio and worked with him for several years to restore the Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian in Syria, until 2000. At that time Mourad started to restore the Monastery of Saint Elian and became its head. He was also the priest of the nearby town of al-Qaryatayn, in Homs Governorate. He stayed there until 2015, when Islamic State advanced into the area and took him and some other Christian residents as prisoners. After over four months in captivity he was able to escape, and later went to Iraq, where he lived at a monastery in Sulaymaniyah and assisted refugees fleeing the war with IS in Iraq. Mourad was elected as Archbishop of Homs by the Syriac Catholic Synod of Bishops in 2022 and was confirmed by Pope Francis in 2023. Provided by Wikipedia