Euthymios Saifi

Euthymios Michael Saifi (or Aftimios Sayfi, 1643–1723) was the Melkite Catholic bishop of Tyre and Sidon during the early 18th century.

Saifi founded the Basilian Salvatorian congregation[1]: 34  and the Melkite Holy Savior Monastery (Deir-el-Moukhales) at Joun near Sidon.

Saifi wrote to Rome, which forbade him to become patriarch, but appointed him Apostolic administrator for the Catholic faithful in the Melkite Church on 6 December 1701.

These Latinizations were neither desired nor wanted by Rome, which condemned them many times (for example through the Propaganda Fide in 1723 and formally on 15 March 1729); regardless, they spread among some of the Catholic partisans of the Melkite Church.

Athanasius Dabbas, in a synod held in Constantinople in 1722, deposed and exiled Saifi to allow some Greek bishop to take possession of his important episcopal See.