[1] Ephrem Joseph Yonan was born at Al-Hasakah, Syria, on 15 November 1944, and was ordained a priest on 12 September 1971.

He founded a mission in Newark, New Jersey (Our Lady of Deliverance) and others in North Hollywood (Sacred Heart) in 1991 and in San Diego (Our Mother of Perpetual Help) in 1994.

Along with Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan served as a co-president of the October 2010 Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East in the Vatican.

The patriarch has visited members of his flock in various areas of the diaspora, including Australia and the United States.

[6] He has continuously called on Western countries to not support insurgents in Syria "just to make the regime of Assad fall" and to find another way to resolve the conflict.