Ten years later, in 1826, the Melkites got all they wanted. The Greeks seem to have given way suddenly. The Melkites sent to their Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius V (see p. 204), and he sent them a Melkite priest, a Salvatorian Basilian monk, Michael Bāhūs. The famous Maximos Maẓlūm (p. 210) was then at Rome. From this time the Melkite hierarchy assume the chief part in the direction of the church at Leghorn. As soon as they had succeeded in their object, the Melkites who had become Latins turned again and came back to their own rite. From this time there is always at least a Melkite curate at the church, named by the Melkite Patriarch. Maẓlūm in 1840 came and baptized their bell; the direction of the clergy seems to pass entirely to the Melkites. In 1807 John Doxaras, the chaplain, a Greek, obtained from Rome the privilege of wearing the Byzantine mitre and of being a titular Archimandrite. The chaplains also wear the Epigonation and generally call themselves Chorepiskopoi. All these privileges are now so common in the Melkite church that they mean nothing more than when a priest is a Monsignore with us.
Since 1887 the chaplain is Joseph Shalhūb, a Melkite Salvatorian. But he is the only Melkite in the place. All the others have either turned Latin or have gone away. So we have the odd situation that a Congregation consisting exclusively of Italo-Greeks is served by an Arab Melkite priest. Till 1892 there was a committee of Greeks to arrange the temporal affairs of the church. Then the number of Greeks was so reduced that Italian Latins were admitted to this committee. In 1904 the committee was dissolved by the Government; they have now appointed a commission to consider the formation of a new one. There are about eighty people who attend this church, all Italo-Greeks, by descent Albanians. The services are in Greek, which Fr. Shalhūb knows well; the books registers are also kept in Greek. But the people speak Italian, and the priest is an Arab. The church, according to rule in Italy, depends on the Bishop of Leghorn; the priest is presented by the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, appointed by the Ordinary.[1]
- ↑ See Giuseppe Scialhub (=Yūsuf Šalhūb), "La chiesa greco-unita di Livorno, memorie storiche edite nel terzo centenario civile di Livorno e dell' inaugurazione della chiesa greco-unita," Leghorn, 1906, where a list of the rectors will be found; Rodota, "del Rito greco," iii, 229-230; C. Charon, "L'Église grecque cath. de Livourne" in the Echos d'Orient, xi (1908), pp. 227-237.
