His consecration as Patriarch was held on April 24, 1619 in Amioun, Lebanon, by the hands of metropolitans Simeon of Hama, Lazaros of Homs and Dionysios of Hosn, under the political influence of the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Sayfa.
This split of the Church not only created discord, but also caused a huge expenditure of money, because both part asked for the formal recognition by the Ottoman sultan who granted it successively to the party who paid more.
The synod proclaimed Ignatius III Atiyah as the only Patriarch, and Cyril Dabbas he was brought in chains to Ras-Baalbek and exiled near Hermel, where shortly later he was executed by men of the Emir.
[5] After the 1638 Synod of Ras-Baalbek, Ignatius III Atiyah went on reigning for other six years, and he decided to abide mainly at Beirut, near to his protector the Druze Emir Fakhr-al-Din II.
In 1633 the Ottoman Sultan started a successful war against the will of independence of the Emir, and Ignatius Atiyah, now without political protection, had to escape from Beirut to Saida.