Lattakia, Syria
We bid farewell to Lebanon and again said hello to Syria. This was perhaps our lightest day on the trip, as we visited some ruins and dined at a new coastal restaurant in Lattakia. We ate the Sea’s most famous fish, “Sultan Brahim”, and watched the sun set over the Mediterranean.
Most importantly on this day, we had the opportunity to meet with Sayidna JOSEPH’s father confessor when he was a boy, His Eminence, Metropolitan JOHN (Mansour). We visited him at his chancery, where he told us that Sayidna JOSEPH was a diligent student under his care at the Balamand. Sayidna JOHN also shared with us a little trivia: Lattakia is the “factory” for bishops. Five of the current members of the Holy Synod of Antioch, including His Beatitude, Patriarch IGNATIUS, had either served here as a bishop or grew up in this archdiocese.