Charbel Abdallah
Charbel Yusef Abdallah, born February 17, 1967, in Hajjeh, Lebanon, is the Archeparch of the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.
He grew up in Hajjéh in the Sidon district of Southern Lebanon and was named after Saint Charbel Makhlouf, who was canonized in 1977. He studied at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, earning a theology degree in 1992 and was ordained a priest on October 24, 1992. Abdallah served as parish priest of Saint Joseph in Hajjeh and Saint Joseph in Kfarwa. From 1994 for two years he led the Archeparchy’s General Secretariat and, until 1998, headed the local Caritas charity. From 1997 to 1999 he was Spiritual Director at the Patriarchal Seminary of Ghazir.
After earning a philosophy degree from the Lebanese University, he moved to Strasbourg in 1999 and, in 2003, earned a Doctorate in Theology with a focus on liturgy from Marc Bloch University. While in France, he worked as assistant parish priest at Notre-Dame du Liban and later at Notre-Dame d’Auteuil in Paris. Returning to Lebanon in 2003, he became Episcopal Vicar for pastoral work and parish priest of Our Lady of the Seas in Tyre.
Following the July 2006 Lebanon War, he organized aid for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in southern Christian villages, coordinating with the Melkite archeparchies of Tyre and Baniyas. In 2010 he became Protosyncellus in Tyre. In October 2020, after Archeparch El-Hage resigned, Abdallah was elected by the Maronite Synod to succeed him. The Pope approved the election and it was announced on November 1.
He was consecrated as archbishop on December 5 by Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi. His consecrators included his predecessor El-Hage and the bishop of Sidon, Maroun Ammar, who is also from Hajjeh.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:45 (CET).