Background
Father Joseph was born in Beirut on May 15, 1793.
Father Joseph was born in Beirut on May 15, 1793.
He was the son of George MeHanna Haddad Firzli, a Lebanese craftsman of Rûm Antiochite-Byzantine descent. He was ordained a priest in 1817 for the Diocese of Damascus and served as director of the Patriarchal School in Damascus 1836–1860: under his leadership, the Patriarchal School became the leading Orthodox institution of higher learning in the Middle-East. Many alumni of Father Joseph"s Patriarchal School became bishops and archpriests in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, the United States and Brazil, most notably Father Raphael Hawaweeny, known as Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, the first Orthodox bishop consecrated on American soil.