Funeral of Fr. Elias
Our Beloved Friends, Christ is Risen!
With pain and the joy of the Resurrection, we must inform you of the repose of our Very Rev. Archimandrite Fr. Elias (Bitar), our beloved Professor of Byzantine music and treasure house of liturgical experience, the inimitable “Voice” of Antioch in America, the all-inclusive, generous smile of Saint Nina’s, our tenderhearted father and faithful servant of the Altar of our Monastery.
On Thursday the 21st, entirely himself until the very last, he suffered no more than five minutes; and Fr. Madai was holding him when he took his last breath.
During these 7 years since our beloved Khouria Joanne anchored him and all of us in this Monastery, with her burial in St. Nina’s Cemetery, his health was declining, but his heart kept softening. Fr. Elias was laid beside his Khouria at last, on Monday, May 25th, at 1:00 pm EST.
Further information is available at:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/669
With pain and the joy of the Resurrection, we must inform you of the repose of our Very Rev. Archimandrite Fr. Elias (Bitar), our beloved Professor of Byzantine music and treasure house of liturgical experience, the inimitable “Voice” of Antioch in America, the all-inclusive, generous smile of Saint Nina’s, our tenderhearted father and faithful servant of the Altar of our Monastery.
On Thursday the 21st, entirely himself until the very last, he suffered no more than five minutes; and Fr. Madai was holding him when he took his last breath.
During these 7 years since our beloved Khouria Joanne anchored him and all of us in this Monastery, with her burial in St. Nina’s Cemetery, his health was declining, but his heart kept softening. Fr. Elias was laid beside his Khouria at last, on Monday, May 25th, at 1:00 pm EST.
Further information is available at:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/669