Background
Elias Coueter was the son of Antoun Saada Coueter and his wife Wasilla and grew up in Damascus.
Elias Coueter was the son of Antoun Saada Coueter and his wife Wasilla and grew up in Damascus.
After the I World War, Coueter continued his education in Damascus and studied philosophy and theology.
The bishop"s seat is located in São Paulo Paulo. Between 1914 and 1918 all seminaries had to cease operations, and the seminarians returned to their hometowns. On July 20, 1925 he was ordained a priest and knew then pastoral and pastoral activities in Beirut, Damascus and Cairo.
Foreign some time he worked at the sister school of the Sisters of Besançon ( Besançon Ecole) as chaplain and director of Arab Studies.
In 1936 he was sent as an Archimandrite in the Melkite parish to Detroit (United States of America). In 1939, Elias Coueter was envoyed to Brazil, where he continued the development of the communities.
From this church he was also an office and accommodation. He organized the construction of its own parish church, the church of Saint Basil, that was first built in 1941 and in 1946 handed over by the Archbishop of the Melkite Church.
By 1951 the community had from Melkites, Maronites, Ukrainian Catholics, Russian Greek Catholics, Romanian Greek Catholics and Syriac Catholics together set, significantly increased.
In the same period, the municipality of Paraíso in São Paulo Paulo had also increased, according to her the eparchy was later to be named. On November 25, 1960, Coueter was appointed Titular Bishop of Taua and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Byzantine Catholics in Brazil. The episcopal ordination took place on February 5, 1961 by Archbishop Elias Zoghby of Baalbek (Lebanon).
His co-consecrators were the Bishop Paulo Rolim Loureiro of Mogi das Cruzes and the Bishop José Romão Martenetz, OSBM. Shortly after his episcopal appointment Coueter participated in the last two sessions of the II Vatican Council.
Pope Paul VI by decree of 1972 gave the Melkite Greek Catholic Church its own bishopric in Brazil. Foreign the first time Elias Coueter became the Bishop for all Melkites of the Byzantine Rite in Brazil with the new Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Nossa Senhora do Paraíso em São Paulo.
In 1977, he handed in his resignation due to age and became Professor Emeritus on June 22, 1978 until his death on June 16, 1985, he was retired bishop of the Melkites in Brazil.
