Pietro Sfair

Pietro Sfair (10 February 1888 - 18 May 1974 ) was a Lebanese Catholic prelate who was the Diocesan Bishop of the Syriac-Maronite Church of Antioch Catholic faithful in Rome, Italy.^[1][2] He was also appointed as the titular Archbishop of Nisibis.^[3] Sfair was a Council Father at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.^[4]

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]

Sfair 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]

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]

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.^[12]

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

In the 1960s and 1970s in Rome, Sfair became known for walking all around central Rome without concerning himself with vehicular traffic. He 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]

Sfair's birth name in Arabic is Butros Javad Sufayr. Sfair's father was Georges Sfeir and his mother was Philoumene Sfeir (for background on the family history, see Sfeir^[13]). The names of some of his siblings were Salim, Chaia, Maria, Racquel, 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.^[14] 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.^[15] Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez was his niece, and Mauricio Gonzalez Sfeir is a great nephew.

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.^[16]

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 and Isaie, and one of his two sisters.^[2]

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]

In the early 1970s, Sfair served as the Rector of the Maronite College in Rome (Collegio Maronita di Roma-- Pontificio Collegio dei Maroniti) and his Vice Rector was the future Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi. Sfair's 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.^[17]

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).^[2]

Sfair was the Honorary Rector of the Accademia Universale Guglielmo Marconi in Rome.^[18] 1966-1974

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)^[19]

The Antiochene Maronite Rite (1933)^[20]

Emigration and Love of Country in the Poetry of the Lebanese Dialect (1942)^[21]

The Syriac-Maronite mass, annotated (1946)^[22]

Biography of St. Abraham of Clermont (1962)^[23]

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

• "Bishop/bsfair". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.