Archbishop Anton Aneed: Audio Recordings for Former Milwaukee Melkite Priest Found Almost One Hundred Years Later
Archbishop Anton Aneed: Audio Recordings for Former Milwaukee Melkite Priest Found Almost One Hundred Years Later
 |
| Source: https://san-luigi.org/2012/09/29/members-of-the-san-luigi-orders-patriarc-anthony-aneed/ |
In the phonograph recordings that belonged to Siad Addis, and later his
daughter Elaine Addis, were two records by Anton Aneed. Archbishop
Anthony Joseph Aneed (Anton Aneed) was born on February 27, 1879 in
Beirut, Greater Syria (now Lebanon). With little education and
working-class roots, he found odd jobs until he was hired to work at a
train station.
In the early summer of 1909, Archbishop Sawoya ordained Aneed. The next
year, Reverend Aneed was elevated to the position of Exarch of the
Archdiocese of Beirut. He remained in Beirut for another year, but soon
followed the emigration out of Ottoman-controlled Greater Syria to the
Americas. Between 1860 and 1914, forty-five percent of Mount Lebanon
residents emigrated as a result of overcrowding and intense competition
for work in Beirut.
Most Syro-Lebanese who immigrated to the US, settled in lower
Manhattan’s Little Syria. In 1910, Reverend Aneed settled in New York
City, but served as a missionary in Brooklyn, a borough with an
expanding Syro-Lebanese population. Shortly after his arrival,
Archbishop Sawoya defied the Pope and visited the United States to see
his former secretary. By the fall of 1911, Sawoya consecrated Reverend
Aneed as Assistant Bishop. Angered by Archbishop Sawoya’s defiance, the
Pope refused to recognize Rev. Aneed’s consecration. Melkite Patriarch,
Cyril IX Mogabgab, however, recognized the same consecration.
 |
| World War I Draft Card for Rev. Anthony Joseph Aneed. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
In 1915, some eight hundred Syro-Lebanese people lived in Milwaukee and
ninety percent were Melkite. Rev. Aneed moved to the Midwest and served
as the second priest of Saint George’s Syrian Melkite Catholic Church in
Milwaukee. Although established in 1911 to serve emigrants from Zahle,
Baalbek, and Ain Bourdai, the church moved into its first building under
Rev. Aneed in 1917. He lived a few doors away at 1611 State Street with
married couple, James and Helen Khoury, and employed an older Syrian
woman, Mary Attah, as a cook.
 |
| Photos of Saint George's Syrian Catholic Melkite Church in Milwaukee. Photos by Richard M. Breaux. |
On June 14, 1918, Rev. Aneed received the title "Exarch" from Archbishop
Sebastian Messmer of Milwaukee. Messmer had been instrumental in
supporting Saint George in its developing stages. While visiting
Archbishop Sawoya in France after World War I’s end, Aneed published
Syrian Christians: A Brief History of the Catholic Church of St. George
in Milwaukee, Wisc. and a Sketch of The Eastern Church.
 |
| University of Dayton Archives, U.S. Catholic Special Collection, https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_holy_cards/76/ |
By 1920, he
returned to Milwaukee, but he disappears from the record for about nine
years, with the exception of showing up in New York City in 1925. Here
he lived at 2449 South Blvd and recorded between five to seven songs on
A.J. Macksoud’s record label. The Macksoud brothers ran their operation
on 77 Washington Street. There is no question that Siad and Shaheene
Addis knew that Rev. Anthony Aneed had pastored the Melkite Catholic
Church in Milwaukee when they purchased Aneed’s recordings.
 |
| A.J. Macksoud #1722 A & # recorded by 1422 Rev. Anton Aneed. From the collection of Richard M. Breaux |
In 1929, Aneed arrived in New London, Connecticut where he became pastor
of St. Ann’s Melkite Catholic Church. Part of the attraction and reason
for going to New London was that his brother, Enid, lived there. During
his tenure at Saint Ann’s he resided with his brother, where he lived
until January 1934. Aneed resigned and headed west.
The year 1934 shows Exarch Aneed crisscrossing the United States from
California to Arizona, New York, and back. In New York, Exarch Aneed was
subconditionally consecrated by Archbishop Sophronios Bishara of the
Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America. By
year’s end, he married Victoria S. Lahood in Yuma, Arizona. The couple
had a child, but sources neither reveal the child's name, nor sex.
Between 1934 and 1942, he and Victoria moved between New York and San
Francisco. Around this time, he became more of a heretic. He believed
the Syrian Melkite Church needed to reassert itself and break with Rome.
In September 1944, Archbishops Aneed, Wadle, and Verostek established
the American Concordat Exarchate and the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox
Church of the Americas, with Aneed as its Exarch. At the same meeting,
the three bishops united to establish The Byzantine Catholic and
Orthodox Church of the Americas to realign the Melkite rite to its
position before union with the Vatican.
 |
| World War II Draft Card for Rev. Anthony Joseph Aneed. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
At the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox Church Synod in April 1945,
Archbishop Aneed was elected Primate of the Byzantine Catholic and
Orthodox Church of the Americas. He pastored at Saint Alban at 2041
Argyle Street in Hollywood, California. He and Victoria lived at 2119
Darwin in Los Angeles. The newly confirmed Archbishop also traveled
frequently between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He was enthroned as
Patriarch Antionius Joseph 1st on January 1, 1946. This created great
confusion among Catholics in the western US. One Catholic newspaper, ran
several stories in an attempt to validate Aneed’s claim that he was a
legitimate priest. According to some sources, superiors in the Catholic
church barred Aneed from becoming a bishop because the Pope never
recognized his consecration back in 1911 and now with wife and child, he
could not become a bishop despite the marriage policy toward Eastern
Catholic priests. Rejected by the Pope and the Patriarch of the Eastern
Orthodox Church, he established his own branch of Catholicism. To Roman
Catholics, Aneed became what’s known as a vagante.
Both Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area had sizable
Syro-Lebanese communities by the 1940s. Several former residents of La
Crosse relocated to both regions of California. In August 1948,
Patriarch Aneed opened the Seminary of St Anthony, The Star of the
Desert, in California. By this time, the Concordat had expanded into the
Federation of Independent Catholic and Orthodox Bishops.
Around 1952, Aneed was married, no longer to Victoria, but to a woman
named Helen. Whether Victoria died or the couple divorced remains
unclear, but Aneed remained a rebel of sorts. Eastern Catholic and
Melkite priests could be married before ordination, but could not
remarry if their wife died. Rev. Aneed definitely married twice, and
long after he became a bishop.
 |
| Photo courtesy of the Portland, Oregon Journal, 6 November 1947. |
Rev. Aneed was in his 80s by the 1960s. On June 5, 1960, Patriarch Aneed
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his priesthood at the Cathedral
of the Merciful Savior, San Diego, California. The year before, however,
he and Helen moved to 5735 Frontier Way in Carmichael, California, near
Sacramento. Traveling between northern and southern California began to
take its toll on the aging priest. Failing health led, Archbishop Aneed
to turn down invitations to speak or take on more responsibilities
large and small. He officially retired.
In September 1961, it was announced that Patriarch Aneed would come out
of retirement and to take over the Church of the Merciful Savior in San
Diego, but this appears to have been short-lived endeavor because the
Aneed family refused to relocate. Rev. Anthony Joseph Aneed died August
24, 1970, his wife, Helen, lived until 1999.
The calling card appears courtesy of the University of Dayton Archives.
Hear Rev. Anthony Aneed sing, “The Leaders of the People Have Gathered”
(Macksoud #1722A) in 1925.
Hear Rev. Anthony Aneed sing, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”
(Macksoud #1722B) in 1925.
Hear Rev. Anthony Aneed sing, “The Saying of the Pasach”
(Macksoud #1422A-B) in 1925.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
Comments
Post a Comment