Francis Mansour Zayek

Archbishop Francis Mansour Zayek (born October 18, 1920, Manzanillo, Cuba – died on September 14, 2010) was a prelate of the Maronite Church. He was the founding eparch of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, an Eastern Catholic diocese based in Brooklyn, New York, which covers the eastern coast of the United States.

Zayek was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, one of the eight children of Mansour Zayek and Mariam Khoury, on October 18, 1920. The family moved from Cuba back to their homeland of Lebanon in 1931, then part of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and settled in their native city of Ghazir. Inspired by an uncle, Father George Zayek, the local pastor, he felt drawn to the priesthood. For much of his youth, he felt drawn to enter the Franciscan Order for service as a missionary to Asia.

Instead of that path, Zayek applied to the seminary of the Maronite Church in his hometown, with the approval of his local bishop, Elias Richa, the Archbishop of Baalbek. He excelled in his studies at the seminary, being fluent in Arabic as well as in French and Spanish (and later in Italian, Portuguese and English) and the archbishop decided to send him to Rome for further studies, where he continued to gain honors. He spent World War II studying at the Urban College, where he gained a diploma in philosophy. He later recounted the struggle the seminarians faced to find food in that period. After graduating, he was ordained a Maronite Catholic priest in the chapel of the College on March 17, 1946. Zayek became incardinated in Lebanon.

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