John Peter El Hajj

John XII Peter El Hajj (1 November 1817 in Dlebta, Keserwan District – 24 December 1898 in Bkerké), (or Youhanna Boutros El Hajj, El-Hage, El-Haj, El-Hadj, ), was the 71st Maronite Patriarch of Antioch from 1890 until his death in 1898. He was previously Eparch of Baalbek-Deir El Ahmar.

Life

John Peter El Hajj was born in the village of Dlebta, in the Keserwan District, Lebanon on November 1, 1817, son of the priest of the village. He studied in the seminary of 'Ain-Warka and was ordinated priest on December 26, 1839.

After having studied Islamic law, on May 10, 1844, he was appointed judge in Mount Lebanon, a position he held till 1855, when he became secretary of Archbishop Paolo Brunoni, a Cypriot who was the Apostolic Legate of Syria. During the 1860 Lebanon conflict he took refuge in Beirut. El Hajj took the name Boutros Youhanna XII, being enthroned on May 4, 1890. He was confirmed by the Holy See in the consistory of 23 June of the same year.

During his patriarchate, in 1893, he built a new palace around the earlier monastery in the winter residence of the Patriarch at Bkerké. Also, El Hajj instructed the archbishop of Arca di Fenicia dei Maroniti and the future Patriarch Elias Peter Hoayek to raise the necessary funds for the construction of a residence to Maronites in Jerusalem and for the construction of the new Maronite seminary in Rome, which will be inaugurated in 1893. He also supported without any hesitation the work of Latin missionaries. He died on December 24, 1898, in Bkerké.