His Beatitude John X is the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. He was elected on December 17, 2012, and enthroned on February 10, 2013.
His full name is John Yazigi. When you see official letters or statements from the Antiochian Archdiocese, they’ll refer to him as His Beatitude Patriarch John X. That “X” isn’t an initial, it means he’s the tenth patriarch named John in the long succession stretching back to the apostolic see founded by St. Peter himself.
The Patriarch of Antioch isn’t just a figurehead. He’s the chief bishop of the entire Antiochian Orthodox Church worldwide, which includes our archdiocese here in North America. When he presides over the Holy Synod in Balamand, Lebanon, the decisions made there affect parishes from Damascus to Dearborn to right here in Beaumont. He’s the spiritual father of millions of Orthodox Christians across the Middle East, Europe, Australia, and the Americas.
Patriarch John’s tenure hasn’t been easy. He became patriarch during Syria’s civil war, and his own brother, Bishop Paul Yazigi of Aleppo, was kidnapped by militants in 2013 and remains missing. The Patriarch has had to shepherd a church through unimaginable suffering. Christians have fled the region by the hundreds of thousands. Ancient communities that survived Roman persecution, Arab conquest, Crusader violence, and Ottoman rule have been decimated in our lifetime.
But he’s also been a voice for unity and reconciliation. He’s spoken out for the persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He’s called for justice and healing in post-Assad Syria. When you read his statements, you hear a pastor who knows what it means to lose everything except faith.
For us in Southeast Texas, it might seem distant. We don’t face what Christians in Syria or Lebanon face. But we’re part of the same church. When Patriarch John celebrates the Divine Liturgy in Damascus, he commemorates the same apostolic faith we celebrate here. When he writes pastoral letters, they’re addressed to us too. The Antiochian Church isn’t a denomination with regional franchises, it’s a living body with one head, Christ, and earthly shepherds who maintain that unity across continents.
You’ll sometimes hear people get confused about Antiochian leadership. We have Metropolitan Saba, who leads our archdiocese in North America. But he’s not independent. He serves under the authority of Patriarch John and the Holy Synod in Antioch. That’s how Orthodox ecclesiology works, local bishops have real authority in their regions, but they’re not isolated. They’re in communion with their patriarch and with all the other Orthodox bishops worldwide.
The Patriarchate of Antioch is one of the ancient apostolic sees. Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, these aren’t just historical footnotes. They’re living realities. When St. Paul confronted St. Peter in Antioch (Galatians 2), that was our church. When St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote his letters on the way to martyrdom in Rome, he was our patriarch. Patriarch John X stands in that succession, the 169th bishop to hold that apostolic office.
If you want to keep up with what’s happening in the wider Antiochian world, check antiochian.org periodically. They post statements from the Patriarch and news from the Holy Synod. It’s worth reading. We can get so focused on our local parish life, and that’s good, that’s where we live our faith, but remembering we’re part of something ancient and global changes how we pray. When we say “for our father among the saints, John, Patriarch of Antioch” during the Liturgy, we’re not reciting a formula. We’re naming our actual bishop, a man who right now is trying to hold together a church in one of the hardest places on earth to be Christian.
