Euthymios Saifi

Euthymios Michael Saifi (or Aftimios Sayfi, 1643–1723) was the Melkite Catholic bishop of Tyre and Sidon during the early 18th century. A leading proponent of re-establishing communion between the Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Catholic Church, he is often described as the architect of the Melkite Catholic Church.

Life Michael Saifi was born in Damascus in about 1643. He was admitted in the entourage of patriarch Macarios III Zaim and he was schoolmate of Macaire's nephew, the future patriarch Cyril Zaim. Michael Saifi was ordained deacon in 1666, priest shortly later and appointed teacher of the patriarchal school. In 1682 he was consecrated bishop of Tyre and Sidon by Cyril Zaim, who has become patriarch in the meantime.

Saifi, like many clerics in the patriarchate of Antioch, wanted to formally re-establish ties to the Church of Rome. In December 1683 he openly declared himself in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Saifi founded the Basilian Salvatorian congregation with the aim of supporting pastoral and missionary activities by well-educated and celibate Melkite clergy.

Four pro-Catholic Melkite bishops, who considered the 1694 agreement between Cyril Zaim and Athanase Dabbas over the patriarchal succession unlawful, urged Saifi to become patriarch. Saifi wrote to Rome, which forbade him to become patriarch, but appointed him Apostolic administrator for the Catholic faithful in the Melkite Church on 6 December 1701.

One year after his death, through his work, his nephew, Seraphim Tanas, was elected as the Greek Patriarch of Antioch under the name Cyril VI.