His election occurred during the visit of the papal emissary Girolamo Dandini who was sent to keep tabs on the Maronite Church's implementation of Roman Catholic reforms after reports that Mikha'il had Jacobite tendencies.
[2] Among the Latinization measures he implemented, Ruzzi revised fasting periods in accordance with Rome and removed a degree of Syriac from Maronite liturgy and ritual.
Ruzzi's act made the Maronites the first Eastern Church to adopt the Gregorian calendar; the Syriacs and Chaldeans followed in 1836, the Melkites in 1857 and the Armenians in 1911.
[6] Ruzzi was influential with the Ottoman governor of Tripoli and Sunni Muslim local chieftain Yusuf Sayfa Pasha (intermittent r. 1579–1625), whose jurisdiction spanned the predominantly Maronite districts of Byblos, Bsharri and Batroun in northern Mount Lebanon.
The Patriarch frequently obtained orders of safe conduct from the Governor, who strove to win the support of his distrusting Maronite peasant subjects.