[1] He was a distinguished student at the local primary school in the village, and his devoutness to his faith led him at the age of 13 to Rome where he began his philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Urbaniana University.

He received his doctorate in philosophy at the age of 16 and returned to Beirut, Lebanon where he continued his post-doctoral theological studies at the Université Saint-Joseph.

He was ordained as priest by Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Anthony Peter Arida at the Cathedral of Tyre in South Lebanon on April 12, 1930, where he also taught at the local Catholic school.

From 1930 to 1940, he was also a faculty member of Sagesse School in Beirut teaching philosophy and apologetics, patriarchal vicar of Palestine from 1936 to 1940 and president of the Maronite tribunal in the Holy Land.

He was - as usual of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, as a result of the motu proprio Ad purpuratorum patrum collegium[5][6] - a cardinal-bishop without granting a suburbicarian diocese.