John Peter El Hajj was born in the village of Dlebta, in the
Keserwan District,
Lebanon on November 1, 1817, son of the priest of the village. He studied in the
seminary of 'Ain-Warka and was ordinated
priest on December 26, 1839. After having studied
Islamic law, on May 10, 1844, he was appointed judge in
Mount Lebanon, a position he held till 1855, when he became secretary of Archbishop
Paolo Brunoni, a
Cypriot who was the
Apostolic Legate of
Syria. During the
1860 Lebanon conflict he took refuge in
Beirut. El Hajj took the name Boutros Youhanna XII, being enthroned on May 4, 1890. He was confirmed by the
Holy See in the
consistory of 23 June of the same year. During his patriarchate, in 1893, he built a new palace around the earlier monastery in the winter residence of the Patriarch at
Bkerké. Also, El Hajj instructed the
archbishop of Arca di Fenicia dei Maroniti and the future Patriarch
Elias Peter Hoayek to raise the necessary funds for the construction of a residence to Maronites in Jerusalem and for the construction of the new Maronite seminary in Rome, which will be inaugurated in 1893. He also supported without any hesitation the work of
Latin missionaries. He died on December 24, 1898, in Bkerké. ==See also==