[6] George became a monk at the nearby Mar Mattai Monastery, where he and his nephew Isaac were ordained as priests in 1669 by Basil Yeldo, Maphrian of the East.
[7] In 1673, George and Isaac aided Basil Yeldo in renovating the Mar Mattai Monastery, for which the three of them were imprisoned by the governor of Mosul for a short while.
[5][b] He was elected to succeed Ignatius Abdulmasih I as patriarch of Antioch, and was consecrated at the Church of the Forty Martyrs at Mardin on 22 or 23 April 1687 (AG 1998).
[13] After having spent a year in the courts at Aleppo in Syria, George recovered control over churches that had been seized by Syriac Catholics.
[21] George assisted Basilius Gurgis, metropolitan of Bushairiyya, with the construction of the Monastery of Mor Quryaqos with bishops ʿAbd al-Aḥad of Jerusalem and Giwargi of Edessa.