[2] He was ordained a priest on September 28, 1890, and served as secretary and canon lawyer for the Maronite Patriarch John Peter El Hajj.

When World War I broke out Joseph Arida and his wife Adma Rahme were at Mount Lebanon, and were interned by the Turks.

Joseph bribed his way out of prison and escaped to the mountains; there he together with his brother, the Maronite bishop of Tripoli, Lebanon at the time, became known for their charity during the famine that followed the Turkish blockade.

The message was in line with a series of memoranda that the patriarch had begun dispatching to various Lebanese, French, and Jewish organisations, beginning in May 1933.

Anthony Peter Arida died on Holy Thursday, May 19, 1955, in the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate in Bkerké, Lebanon.