Though the family of Neophytos was originally from Chios, he was educated in Damascus under the Jesuits.
At the death of Patriarch Macarios III in 1672, his nephew, Constantine Zaim, not yet twenty, was elected patriarch with the help of the governor of Damascus, was consecrated bishop and took the name of Cyril V.[2] His election was contested by some bishops and by Dositheos, patriarch of Jerusalem, who considered his election to be null, pointing out that Cyril Zaim was not in the legal age to be appointed bishop.
This party supported Neophytos of Chios, who went to Constantinople where in 1673 he obtained a firman in his favor from the Ottoman sultan and the appointment to Patriarch by the Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius IV of Constantinople.
This marked the first direct intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in the affairs of the See of Antioch.
Neophytos retired also from the See of Hama and was appointed bishop of Latakia with the title of honorary Patriarch.