Pierre Bostani

Pierre Bostani or Boutros Boustani (November 1819 – 15 November 1899) was a Maronite prelate, Assistant to the Pontifical Throne, Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon, Count of Rome, Bishop of Saint-John-Acre, and Council Father of the First Vatican Council. He was ordained a Maronite priest on 12 October 1842 by the rector of the university. Upon leaving the university, Bostani taught Syriac and Arabic at the Maronite seminary of Tyr and Sidon for two years. He then returned to his university to teach the youth enrolled there. He had only been teaching for a year that he was quickly called upon by his relative, the Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon Abdallah Bostani, who named him his private secretary. In 1845, Pierre Bostani was called by the Maronite Patriarch to serve as his private secretary, treasurer of the Patriarchy, judge for ecclesiastical affairs, and Vicar General of the Maronite Patriarchy. He would hold this position for 11 years. Poujade states that Bishop Abdallah Bostani particularly regretted a painting of the Virgin Mary given to him by Emir Bechir II that had been burnt by the Druze in the conflicts. The Apostolic Delegate had replaced this loss with a painting of the Virgin Mary inspired by Sassoferrato which he gave to Bishop Abdallah Bostani. stating: "thus would our freedom be restored to us; are we not united with you, O French in heart? Is not our blood and honour your blood and honour?...Our enemies curse and deride us saying: where are your French friends? Where are your Christian kings? Where are their warships and soldiers? Did they come to your aid, O infidel dogs?...It was our love for France and our calling upon her for support that has brought upon us these catastrophes".

Bishop Abdallah Bostani had fervently applauded the Maronite delegate to Rome, Bishop Nicolas Murad, in his tour of European capitals pushing for the return of a Christian government to Mount Lebanon. Keeping him supplied with petitions of supplication from his parishioners, Abdallah Bostani sent Bishop Murad letters and petitions which decried the violent conditions "in the bishopric that Bustani had served so faithfully for forty years". Cardinal Fransoni, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, was asked by Murad and Bostani to plea the Holy See for the return of stability to Mount Lebanon, including the return of Bashir II as governor. Though having gone into hiding to avoid being killed, Bishop Pierre Bostani was very thankful to the French Empire of Napoleon III who had sent a fleet of 6000 men to Lebanon following the 1860 Civil War. In a letter to Charles Schefer (1820–1898), Napoleon III's envoy to Lebanon and the French Foreign Ministry's First Secretary Interpreter for Oriental Languages, Bishop Bostani wrote that the French have come "to protect the Christians and deliver them from oppression and tyranny". The Maronite Patriarch communicated to Schefer that the arrival of French forces to Lebanon had "saved us from imminent total ruin".

Pierre Bostani became Archbishop of Tyre and Sidon on 5 October 1866.

As this archdiocese neither had an official seat nor any buildings, Pierre Bostani purchased in 1860 an old palace in Beiteddine which he restored and enlarged thus making it a seminary and the official seat of his archbishopric. He restored seven churches which had been destroyed, and built six others. He founded the college of Saint Joseph in Jezzine and restored an hospice and a Maronite monastery both located in Deir al-Qamar. Bostani spoke of the fact that Bentivoglio had served in the Italian army as a major and was only French by nationality. He referred to him as the "Consul Intruder".

Like many Maronite bishops, Bostani and the Maronites "were in the habit of having recourse to the consuls of France as if they were French themselves", stating that "their blood had been mixed for many generations".

Two years later, Patriarch Massad requested that Archbishop Bostani head the Maronite delegation that would attend the First Vatican Council in Rome in 1869. On Friday 1 July 1870, during the 80th General Congregation of the Council, Archbishop Bostani celebrated the official mass in the Vatican.

The Council had just met when King Victor Emmanuel II attacked Rome and deposed Pope Pius IX. Pius IX suspended the Council indefinitely on 20 October 1870.

Arrest and exile

On 1 June 1878, Archbishop Bostani was arrested and exiled to Jerusalem under order of Governor Rustem Pasha who personally blamed the Archbishop of violently turning the Maronite population against his authority. Never before had a Maronite prelate been exiled under order of an Ottoman governor. The Maronite population wrote to the Ottoman Grand Vizier, as well as the ambassadors of France, Russia, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Austria to protest the arrest and exile of the Archbishop.

Governor Rustem Pasha was immediately called to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople to justify his actions. Upon the insistence of the French government, Archbishop Pierre Bostani returned to his Archdiocese on a French warship on 9 November 1878 French pressures at home would ultimately push the French government in reinstating Bostani.