In the second half of the 19th century, the Maronite cathedral of "Notre Dame Des Mers" ("Our Lady of the Seas") was constructed near the modern harbour on the foundations of an ancient church.

He personally headed the Maronite delegation that attended the First Vatican Council in Rome in 1869.In 1965 the eparchy of Tyre was elevated to the rank of Archeparchy.

After the kidnapping of Kevin Joyce, an Irish soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), by Palestinian militants in April 1981, Archbishop Maroun Khoury Sader worked with the Irish UNIFIL battalion in efforts to recover his remains.

In 2005, ancient remains - stone walls as well as terracotta, ivory objects, and paintings - were discovered during excavations underneath the cathedral.

According to the Directorate General of Antiquities, it was a Roman-era food store which had been built on the site of a building from the Hellenistic period.