Douma, Lebanon, October 7, 2025
Photo: SVS Press
A museum dedicated to Metropolitan Antony Bashir, the former head of the Antiochian Archdiocese of New York, opened on Sunday in the Lebanese village where he was born.
His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch led a Doxology of Thanksgiving at the Dormition Church in Douma before the inauguration of the Met. Antony Bashir Museum. The ceremony was attended by His Eminence Metropolitan Saba, current head of the North American Archdiocese, members of the Archdiocese Board of Trustees and their spouses, as well as hierarchs, clergy, and faithful from across the Antiochian See, the Archdiocese reports.
The museum is housed in the home where Met. Antony was born on March 15, 1898, to Joseph and Zaina Bashir. The building now contains icons, vestments, books, and sacred artifacts from his life and ministry.
The collection includes Met. Antony’s notebooks from his time as a student at the Balamand School, his correspondence with poet Gibran Khalil Gibran during his translation of Gibran’s works, magazines and books he published or translated, records, photographs, and other books. The museum also features portraits by Lebanese artists and a bust by sculptor Rudy Rahme.
In his remarks at the inauguration, Pat. John reflected that Met. Antony sowed love in both Antioch and North America, and that his home remains a house of the Lord.
Photo: mecc.org
Met. Antony arrived in the United States in 1922 as part of a delegation sent by Patriarch Gregory IV Haddad of Antioch to seek financial assistance for the Church of Antioch, which had lost Russian support following the Bolshevik Revolution. Upon returning to New York, he was ordained to the priesthood and elevated to archimandrite in 1922. He served parishes in Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan before becoming diocesan administrator in 1934.
In 1936, he was ordained to the episcopate at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Brooklyn, New York, and was immediately elevated to archbishop. He was later elevated to metropolitan.
He recognized early the need to introduce the English language into diocesan life and to accept converts. He ordained many to the priesthood and actively introduced English into worship and publications. In 1938, he founded an Orthodox youth organization that became the Syrian Orthodox Youth Organization (SOYO) in 1951, the first religious organization dedicated primarily to the spiritual growth and unity of youth in the Antiochian Archdiocese.
Met. Antony was instrumental in organizing the Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America in 1942, which was later reorganized into the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). In 1957, he founded the English-language magazine “The Word.”
In 1958, following his letter to Patriarch Alexander III Tahan, approval was granted for a Western Rite throughout the Patriarchate.
Toward the end of his life, Met. Antony organized the foundation of the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology at the University of Balamand in Tripoli, Lebanon.
Met. Anthony receiving a medal from the Syrian Masonic Lodge, with the Patriarch and several other hierarchs and clergy present. Photo: Syrian Masonic Lodge
It is also known that Met. Antony was a freemason, which is forbidden in Orthodoxy. He was even awarded a medal by the Syrian Masonic Lodge.
Met. Antony died on February 16, 1966, in Worcester, Massachusetts, from complications caused by lymphosarcoma. His body was later transferred to the cemetery at the Antiochian Village near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. He served as Metropolitan of New York and the Antiochian Archdiocese from 1936 until his repose.
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