Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi (Chehade): The Beloved Golden-Voiced Priest, Who Defied his Synod
Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi (Chehade): The Beloved Golden-Voiced Priest, Who Defied his Synod
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| Germanos Shehadi c. 1915. Photo courtesy of and permissions from The Word, 61, 4 (2017), 6. |
Have you ever wondered how Arab American Antiochian Orthodox cantors with little or no formal musical training maintained and retained the musical traditions that are such an integral part of Arabic-language matins, divine liturgies, and vespers? Today, many Antiochian congregations have English-language only services. Increasingly the second, third, and fourth-generation Arab Americans, who happen to attend Antiochian Orthodox churches, don’t speak or understand Arabic. A few Antiochian Orthodox churches with larger congregations that still serve Syrian and Lebanese American communities and had more persistent flows of immigrants from the Middle East after 1965, like Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn, New York, hold bi-lingual services in English and Arabic. The Basilica of Saint Mary Antiochian Orthodox in Livonia, Michigan, operates an Arabic-language school. In smaller Arab American communities like in La Crosse, Wisconsin, recorded music likely aided in the retention of liturgical singing in Arabic for a longer period of time as a result of early record technology. It turns out, two lots of the 78-rpm Antiochian Orthodox recordings in our collection came from the homes of former Antiochian cantors – Siad Addis and Lee Beshar Cohlmia - in smaller communities with small Orthodox congregations. Because some early twentieth-century Antiochian priests and cantors recorded commercially, they, unintentionally or intentionally, left a legacy we can still hear to this day. Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi (1872 – 1934), sometimes spelled Chehade, was perhaps the best known and most-widely recorded of early Antiochian priests to spend at least a decade in the United States.
Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi is one of few priests who recorded for the mashriq on Baidaphon and for the mahjar on Saidaphon. While some Antiochians may still remember Shehadi for his singing voice, other Antiochians and non- Antiochian Orthodox recognize him more for defying his Holy Synod. He also recorded on Baidaphon earlier in his career and later as Metropolitan.
Rev. Germanos Shehadi first arrived the in US, ten days after he departed Marseilles, France, on 14 September 1914, on board the Patria. Few Antiochian Orthodox priest stir as much disagreement about obedience to the patriarchate versus service to needy parishioners as Germanos Shehadi. Those families who Shehadi served remember him with great fondness, some in the Orthodox Church, however, viewed, and view Shehadi as a disobedient rogue. According to his immigration documents, he was born in Beirut 18 January 1872. Shehadi served as a missionary among the Syrian population in Brazil and was elevated to Archbishop as a result. According to some contemporary sources, the agricultural college he attempted to start stood in direct response to the emigration of people from Greater Syria.
Archbishop Shehadi first directed services in the United States as a guest of Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Raphael Hawaweeny at Saint Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn in October 1914 (when the cathedral was at Pacific and Hoyt). Boston's Syrian community was his next stop; his visit prompted a massive turnout of congregants from Saint George's and Saint John of Damascus on 10 December 1914. Accompanied by Rev. Archmandrite Aftimios Ofiesh and Rev. Agapios Golam, Shehadi conducted midnight mass on 6 January 1915 and the Christmas service in Montreal on 7 January 1915 (in accord with the Julian calendar). It was while traveling in Canada that Shehadi received notice of the death of Archbishop Raphael Hawaweeny in Brooklyn on 27 February 1915.
On 7 March 1915, Shehadi officiated the final funeral of Archbishop Hawaweeny. After Hawaweeny's passing, Germanos Shehadi of Zahle and Baalbek, visited Bangor, Maine, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and other cities with Syrian Orthodox communities. In 1916, he visited La Crosse, Wisconsin, and later again, in September 1917, returned to install and ordain Rev. Elias Sady as pastor of Saint Elias Syrian Orthodox Church. During his stay in La Crosse, Shehadi was the guest of Salem and Mariam Markos and dined at the home of George Sady. More importantly he inspired local cantor Siad Addis.
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| Germanos Shehadi visited La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1916 and 1917, La Crosse Tribune 1 June 1916. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Most historical literature about the Orthodox Church or Shehadi suggests that he was in the United States to raise funds for a school back home, but interestingly, he filed “first papers” or intentions to become a naturalized citizen of the United States within months of his arrival in 1914. One has to question why a person on a temporary fundraising tour would file immigration papers? Perhaps he would not have stayed on if his services were not in such demand, but in the process of working with Antiochian and non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox congregations in the US and Canada, Shehadi’s goal seems to have changed course or even solidified. Metropolitan Shehadi, who launched an effort to become successor to Archbishop Hawaweeny as leader of the Syrian Antiochian parishes in the US and Canada, falsely claimed to be a representative of the Antiochian Patriarch. Some parishioners followed Shehadi into his newly incorporated “Syrian Holy Orthodox Greek Catholic Mission in North America” as he refused orders from the Holy Synod in Damascus to return to his rightful diocese in Zahle.
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| Archbishop Germanos Chahde's declaration of Intention from 1921. He became naturalized in 1926. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Some Orthodox histories present Shehadi as “a rogue bishop” and proponent on ethnocentrism who appealed to elders in the Syrian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada. This is only partially the case. The combined death of Archimandrite Raphael Hawaweeny, the toppling of the Russian monarchy during Bolshevik Revolution, and subsequent turmoil in the Russian Orthodox Church, left many orthodox Christians in North America to rely on their ethnic enclaves to serve their cultural needs including those needs related to the retention of food, music, language, and, of course, faith. Antiochian historian Ezra Ham reminds us that “the one place where ‘the old country’ survived, where Arabic was spoken, where a sense of village and ethnic identity was maintained, was their Orthodox Church. The Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Arabic, and the young men found wives, and the young women found husbands, at church.” He continues, eventually “annual meetings of Orthodox Churches in various regions of the country began to be held. Youth societies were created. Churches sponsored social activities such as the mahrajan and the hafla.” While magazines like Al-Kalimat (The Word) and newspapers like Mareet-Ul-Gharb (Mirror of the West) provided a sense of belonging and community in the 1910s to the literate, music, sacred and secular, accessibly connected people in less-tangible and less-documentable ways. These events helped Syrian Lebanese congregants retain certain aspects of their cultures including popular music, folk music, language, and food ways even as church leaders became concerned about in which language they formally conducted church service.
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| Baidaphon B 084367 "Ina yibrail". Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. https://soundcloud.com/user-387335530/met-germanos-chehade-ina-yibrall-b084367 https://soundcloud.com/profbro/biaben-wabnan |
Part of the reason why Shehadi continued to appeal to emigrants from Greater Syria to the US was that they, too, were from Zahle. Others were attracted to his charisma and well-received singing voice that lead him to record for the Beirut-based Baidaphon Records. As for Saidaphon Records, we have been unable to locate any more information about the four-disc set Shehadi recorded on this label. The Saidaphon sessions were likely recorded in January and April of 1919 with the help of musician and composer Alexander Maloof (although other evidence suggests these were recorded in the 1930s).
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| Germanos Shehadi and Alexander Maloof collaborated on at least eight songs that were copyrighted in 1919. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical Compositions, Library of Congress, 1919, p. 7602. |
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| Germanos Shehadi's four record Saidaphon set. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
We own the entire Saidaphon set, four of his original Baidaphon records, and three of Shehadi’s 78-RPM records duplicated from other Baidaphon discs by WHBC Canton and Massillon, Ohio, radio personality James Dooley in the 1940s long after Shehadi’s death.
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| Germanos Shehadi radio 78 dubbed by WHBC employee James Dooley. Courtesy of Richard Breaux collection. |
Shehadi’s decision to remain in the United States back in the 1910s was also bolstered by the support of former residents of Zahle in communities across the United States and Canada. Toledo, Ohio, and the Antiochian Archdiocese of Toledo contained one of the largest populations of people from Zahle in the US. By the 1920s, Shehadi made the United States his home and he became a naturalized citizen on 31 July 1925. Perhaps the Greco-Turkish War or Great Syrian Revolt against French Mandate forces and news of fighting and life-threatening conditions back in Lebanon forced him to rethink a return trip to the Middle East. The needs of parishioners in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada may have pushed him to reevaluate his goals and intentions resulting in his stay in North America. Whatever the reasons for his decision to remain state side, some in the Orthodox Church in the United States labelled, and continue to consider him a rogue priest who defied his holy synod. Shehadi traveled back to France in 1926, 1928, and 1929; and visited Greece twice in 1932. It’s likely he recorded with Baidaphon during this trip to Lebanon. An advertisement for Saint Mary’s Orthodox Church in Brooklyn listed Shehadi as the priest in 1932, however, Shehadi left the United States for good and returned to Beirut by 1933. A United States citizen, it’s likely had he not died he would have returned and vied for the position of Metropolitan of all North America, an issue that divided Antiochians in the US from the 1920s until the 1970s.
Divisions among the Syrian-Lebanese American Antiochians persisted under the following Archbishops: Germanos Shehadi, who was pro-Antacky but acted independently of his patriarchate; Aftimios Ofiesh (1923-1934) supported by the Russy faction, but later lost Russian Orthodox support; Bishop Emanuel Abo-Hatab, Aftimios, who assumed head of Syrian Orthodox under Russian Orthodoxy;
and Metropolitan Victor Abo-Assaley (1924-1934), the first official Antiochian Archbishop selected by the Church at Antioch. The divisions would not be fully restored until after the deaths of Samuel David and Antony Bashir and the elevation of Metropolitan Philip Saliba, who reunified two archdioceses in 1975.
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| Report of death of Germanos Shehadi, 7 April 1937. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Audiophiles and 78 RPM-enthusiasts equally interested in recorded Antiochian Orthodox liturgical songs or chanting have Shehadi’s recordings from the 1910s and 1920s, Samuel David’s record set from the 1940s, and Elias Kurban’s more widely-known set from the 1950s to compare the styles and voices of Arab American Antiochian clergy in the 78-RPM era. Taken as a whole, we are fortunate enough to have all these, and about a half-dozen recordings by the cantor Mirti El-Murr, which offer a fairly comprehensive sampling of Antiochian Orthodox music in the first half of the twentieth century.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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