Elias Chacour

Elias Chacour was born in 1939 in Kafr Bir'im

Chacour was born in 1939 in Kafr Bir'im in the Upper Galilee to a Christian family of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. His family left Bir'im during the 1948 war and found refuge in nearby Jish. They became Israeli citizens in 1948.

He went to a boarding school in Haifa and a high school in Nazareth, then studied theology at St. Sulpice Seminary in Paris. He later studied Bible, Talmud, Aramaic and Syriac at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was the first Arab to earn a higher degree there.

In 1965 he returned to Israel, was ordained a priest by Archbishop George Hakim and moved to Ibillin. Seeing few schooling options for Arab youth, he founded a school open to children of all religions. The Mar Elias Educational Institutions now serve Muslim, Christian and Druze students.

In February 2006 the Melkite Holy Synod elected him Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee. In 2014 Pope Francis accepted his request to retire. He promotes non-violence and reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, and his honors include the Niwano Peace Prize.