An Antiochian Schism: Metropolitan Samuel David
Metropolitan Samuel David
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| Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
Metropolitan Samuel David (Daoud) was, the
youngest of six children, born on August 26, 1893, to John Daoud Husson and Gazaly Haddad
in Aita, Greater Syria (now Lebanon). In the tradition of people like
cantor Mitri el Murr and Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi, he studied in school near Tripoli, Lebanon to become a part of the Antiochian
Orthodox patriarchate and believed music could be an essential component of the
ministry. He graduated from the Balamand Seminary in 1914 having studied with Mitri el Murr and became an ordained deacon in 1916. As an ordained deacon, Samuel David mastered Byzantine chanting and in 1920,
he was elevated to Archimandrite and one year later, in 1921, he immigrated to the United States (some source suggest 17 June 1920). After World War I, he was appointed as pastor
of St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Toledo, Ohio. The combination of the Bolshevik Revolution and the death of Archbishop Raphael Hawaweeny created a crisis of faith and leadership among the Orthodox faithful in the Syrian-Lebanese diaspora settled in the United States. Communities largely divided themselves to two factions: 1) the Russy faction and 2) the Antaky faction. The Russy faction argued to remain affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, while the Antaky faction pushed for affiliation with the Antioch. Adding fuel to the fire, the Russian Orthodox Church selected Bishop Aftimios Ofiesh to succeed Hawaweeny; although some in the Atacky faction looked to Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi (Chehde) as the rightful successor. While some communities resolved this issue, others remained split on the question of leadership. The Syrian-Lebanese community in Toledo was one such community that remained divided.
Just one year after Victor Abou-Assaly's arrival in the United States, and two years after Samuel David arrived, Antiochian Patriarch, Gregorius IV, considered both men for position of Archbishop of North America. By 1924, Gregorius chose Abou-Assaly. Although Archbishop Abou-Assaly presided over New York and North America ,and Archmandrite Samuel David over the Toledo diocese, both travelled quite frequently between their homes and Canada as parts of Canada and Mexico were in Samuel David's jurisdiction. When members of Ottawa's Syrian Orthodox community dedicated Saint Elias Orthodox Church in August, 1932, Toledo's Archmandrite Samuel David and Boston's Gabriel Barrows officiated the services. Nearly 500 people attended the August 4th event.
Despite divisions in the Antiochian community, much of the leadership came together, physically, if not philosophically, to remember Rev. Joseph Kacere of Saint George's Orthodox Church in Cedar Rapids, who died with his child and mother in a car accident. Born in 1885 in Ain Arab, Greater Syria. Rev. Joseph Frank Kacere and his wife, Mary, immigrated to the US in 1904. Soon they made their way to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The family settle on Ninth Avenue, southeast of one of the growing Syrian colonies. Cedar Rapids' Syrians founded Saint George Syrian Orthodox Church in 1914. Rev. Joseph Kacere was officially ordained in March 1916. He and Mary had their first child, Jennie, in 1917, and George and Georgina by 1920. A furnace explosion in the Kacere home in the bitterly cold February of 1917, nearly cost the family their lives as the entire first floor of their two-story home burned almost beyond recognition. Joseph Kacere woke in time to extinguish the blaze before it reached the second floor where the bedrooms were. Around Easter Sunday 1918, frustration among the Orthodox faith erupted into a brawl as some of the members regularly skipped out on Sunday service. According to one report, the “dispute … culminated in a number of black eyes and bruised faces.” While life at Saint George remained quiet on the surface, by 1930, Rev. Kacere found himself embroiled in a Syrian immigration case and the Syrian Orthodox community in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, soon felt the force of the Antiochian split, as others in town founded Saint John the Baptist Syrian Orthodox Church in 1932.
According to reports, 10-year-old Fred Abdnour (some sources say 11 years old) faced the possibility of being sent to Syria even though his family all lived in the United States. The federal government sought to deport the fatherless and poor Abdnour, because, although his mother, Rachel, was citizen by marriage and via naturalization, Fred was not. Originally, Fred and his recently widowed mother, left Greater Syria and immigrated to Mexico. The circumstances that led Rachel to leave Fred with a Mexican family are unclear, but she relocated to Iowa, remarried, and sent for young Fred to join the family in Cedar Rapids. With no family reunification policy written into the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, immigration officers demanded young Fred’s deportation back to Syria. Rev. Kacere appealed to Iowa’s US Representative Congressmen Cyrenus Cole and US Senator Frank C. Beyers for assistance. Frightened that Fred faced an uncertain future with no relatives left in Syria the two politicians help halt the deportation and used their influence to help Fred get a path to naturalized citizenship (technically, Fred's case was not fully resolved until 1939 via the French Consulate, since France still controlled Syria via mandate).
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| Cedar Rapids Gazette, Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Grave of Fred Abdnor. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux
Just six months after Rev. Kacere aided Fred Abnor (Abdnour), tragedy struck the Kacere household. While on a road trip to officiate a christening in Mason City, Iowa, Rev. Joseph Kacere, his nine year old son, Frank, and his 72 year old mother were killed in a car crash. Three Waterloo businessmen in the other car were also killed. Five members of the Kacere family sustained injuries, but survived. Mourners came from Nebraska, West Virginia, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, and Oklahoma. Detroit's Rev. Antony Bashir officiated in English. Archbishop Victor Abou-Assaly, Father M.M. Yaney from Sioux City, and Archmandrite Samuel David also participated in the services. Perhaps the greatest irony is that Rev. Kacere helped the members of his church purchase land for the Saint George Orthodox Cemetery a few blocks from the original church. As a result of several death's among Antiochian priests, including Archbishop Victor Abou-Assaly, Antony Bashir and Samuel David would be among two of the Antiochian priests up to lead all of North America.
St. George Cemetery Entrance and graves of Anna, Rev. Joseph, and Frank Kacere. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux
In 1935, Samuel
David, Agapios Golam, and Antony Bashir represented those who were candidates
for the Archbishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America (a fourth
candidate Ananias Kassab withdrew his name from consideration). Eventually, in
1936, Antiochians in America were split between two archdioceses: those of New
York and North America and of Toledo, Ohio and Dependencies. At the heart of
this split lay the debate of whether Patriarchate of Moscow or the Patriarchate
of Antioch should hold the place of the Mother Church. This separation of the
Arab American faithful resulted significantly from the division in loyalty to
the bishops who would come to govern them: Metropolitan Antony Bashir of New
York and Metropolitan Samuel David of Toledo.
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| Met. Samuel David, Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. Disagreement ran deep and split
Arabic-speaking Orthodox Church members in Toledo. Saint George’s Church traced
its roots to Saint George Syrian-Greek Orthodox Church Association in 1913. It
was the only church to serve Greater Syrian emigrants and their families in
Toledo. Those who supported Samuel David’s selection remained at Saint George;
those who favored Antony Bashir established the Saint Elias Men’s Club and
Ladies Society. This became Saint Elias Orthodox Church by 1938 (both
eventually moved out of Toledo’s north side in the 1970s). On 19 April 1936, Samuel David was
consecrated Archbishop of Toledo, Ohio and Dependencies. He traveled across the
US and tirelessly labored for the Antiochians. According to his son, the
golden-voiced David, rivaled the late Germanos Shehadi. His work in Greece,
Lebanon, and Turkey helped to enlarge the rolls of Orthodoxy and his
influence and financial sponsorship attracted numerous deacons in his Parishes
to the priesthood. He also led the campaign for rebuilding the St. George
Church in Aita, Lebanon. In August, 1938, rumors spread that Archbishop David had been excommunicated by Alexander II, the Patriarch of Antioch, but David continued to travel, speak, dedicate churches, and officiate weddings and funerals at Antiochian churches across the United States and Canada. Remaining disagreements were both a spill-over conflict from the Russy-Antacky split and a result of a rival diocese created by Archbishop David. The church settled this smaller component of the larger Antiochian split by restoring Samuel David in 1939, although David publicly claimed the excommunication was legally invalid. In the end, Archbishop Samuel David reassumed leadership of the Archdiocese of Toledo and Dependencies; Metropolitan Antony Bashir was Archbishop of New York and All North America. Uncertainty, remains as to when Archbishop Samuel David recorded his eight-record set and what record company recorded and pressed this two-volume project. Very few sources mention Archbishop David's singing voice until 1941. It was then, for the first time, the press noted his singing rivaled that of the late Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi. Between 1945 and 1953, David published several Arabic-language prayer books and distributed them to a host of Arabic-speaking Orthodox churches around the globe. He recorded at least an eight disc, 12 song-set possibly for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. Sources don't place Samuel David in Indiana until November, 1948. He was in Indianapolis to perform a pontifical mass and to officiate a wedding. That Gennett's history notes that skating rink, funeral, church, and special pressings were the hallmark of the latter years suggests that Samuel David may have recorded there in November ,1948. Archbishop David worked tirelessly going from congregation to congregation, Wilkes-Barre, Austin, Grand Rapids, back to Toledo, and on the road again. In 1941, he returned to Cedar Rapids for the ceremony where he became godfather to Gary T. Nassif. The Nassifs were and continue to be one of the leading Arab American families in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the aftermath of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Archbishop David became a strong advocate for Arab Americans doing their parts to aide in the war effort and to support President Roosevelt: "Parents and children, be strong to send your boys, for your government needs them. Do not be weak or sorry. The Syrians have been in this beautiful democracy for 85 years--it is our country. Pray to God to make peace in the world everywhere and ask God to being your sons back safe, but help America, now, it is our duty." Some 16,000 Arab Americans served in World War II. Sadly, a distant relative of Archbishop David, Elias M. Tannis, was killed in Holland during World War II. Samuel David officiated his funeral.
Not all events Archbishop David officiated were somber occasions. So-called "Prima donna of Arabic sining" Najeeba Morad joined Archbishops David and Antony Bashir in Ottawa for the Feast of St. Elijah in July, 1945. The next year celebrating the same feast in Ottawa, both Najeeba Morad and Naim Karacand provided entertainment, while Archbishop Samuel David opened the celebration and conducted mass. Among the family that regularly attended mass, other services and events were Damascus-born Andrew Anka, Lebanon-born Camille Tannis Anka, and their young son Paul, the oldest of their three children, who eventually sang in Saint Elijah's Cathedral choir. Paul's dad, Andrew E. Anka, introduced guests speakers in May, 1949, among those guests was Archbishop Samuel David. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, the laying of cornerstones, consecrating new priests and deacon, filled Archbishop David's schedule in the early 1950s. Many of Archbishop David's peers passed on and new freshly-minted priests, some also alumni of Balamad emerged to lead groups of the faithful. New blood meant a revived sense of old debates about uniting Orthodoxy across ethnicity. It also meant protests against the 1950 McCarran Internal Security Act which some believe threatened Syrian, Lebanese, and Middle Eastern communities. Also during this period, Archbsihop David conducted a mass that preceded mahrajans which included Elie Baida, Najeeba Morad, Amer and Sana Kadaj, and other musicians like Mike and Joe Budway. Travel outside the United States took Archibishop David on return trips to Lebanon and Syria. In June 1958, Alexandros Tahan III, Antiochian Patriarch, died in Damascus. Once again the highest seat in the Antiochian Church stood empty. Less than two months later, Archbishop Samuel David died on 12 August 1958. Reports were that he transitioned holding his Bible. While reconciled to the Antiochian Church for twenty years by this point, and well accepted across the United States and Canada, Antiochians in various parts of the United States remained ideologically divided as to their leadership. The larger division among Antiochians ended under Metropolitan Philip Saliba in 1977 and is well-documented in Antiochian history. |
Six of the eight records in the Samuel David set.
by Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
© Midwest Mahjar
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