Kyrillos Makarios

Who is Kyrillos Makarios?

Kyrillos Makarios also written as Cyrillus Macaire was a leader of the Coptic Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic sui juris particular church of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Patriarch of Alexandria from 1899 to 1908 when he resigned.

Kyrillos Makarios was born in Scenaineh in 1867 and was ordained a priest in 1891. He was appointed as Apostolic Vicar of the Coptic Catholic Church on 15 March 1895 and was appointed as Titular Archbishop of Caesarea Philippi and ordained on the position on 17 April 1895. He headed a Coptic Catholic delegation in September 1895 to the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIII after the latter's encyclical dated 11 June 1895 to the Egyptian Catholic Church followers. The delegation requested the reinstatement of the seat of the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate. The papal decision followed quickly on 26 November 1895 reestablishing the patriarchal seat, assigning two eparchies, namely The Eparchy of Hermopolis to be headed by Bishop Maximus Sedfawi and Eparchy of Taybeh to be headed by Bishop Ignatius Barazi, and confirmed Kyrillos Makarios as Apostolic Vicar.

In 1898, he held the First Alexandria Council for the Catholic Copts heading as vicar. He served as Vicar until 19 June 1899 when he was appointed as Patriarch of Alexandria as the first patriarch of the reinstated Coptic Catholic Patriarchate and was officially ordained as Patriarch on July 1899 and was instrumental in organizing the dioceses and the churches. His successes however prompted a lot of opposition, upon which he tended his resignation from the seat and retreated to Beirut, Lebanon.