Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn

Life

Saint Raphael Hawaweeny was born in 1860 to pious Orthodox parents, Michael Hawaweeny and Mariam, the daughter of a Damascus priest; the family had fled persecution in Damascus, and he was born in Beirut. He was educated with the help of the Patriarchate of Antioch, tonsured a monk in 1879, and sent to the theological school at Halki, where he was ordained deacon in 1885. He later studied at the Theological Academy of Kiev, headed the Antiochian representation church in Moscow, and taught Arabic at the Kazan Theological Academy.

In 1895 the Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society of New York invited him to become pastor of the Arab Orthodox community. He bought and remodelled a church building on Pacific Street in Brooklyn, which Bishop Tikhon consecrated. On the third Sunday of Lent in 1904 he became the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated in America, serving as Tikhon's auxiliary in Brooklyn.

From 1896 he made several pastoral journeys across the continent, visiting thirty cities between New York and San Francisco in search of the Master's lost sheep, and he continued his visitations in his last years. In 1915 he fell ill, bore his illness with patience, and rested from his labours on February 14/27, 1915. His glorification was proclaimed in 2000.

Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.