The eparchy of Tyre, together with that of
Sidon, dating back to the dawn of the
Maronite Church (5th century). The
Synod of Mount Lebanon of 1736 canonically established the Eparchy of Tyre and Sidon, which was the seat of their patriarch from 1819 to 1837. In 1838 Tyre became a separated Eparchy. In the second half of the 19th century, the
Maronite cathedral of "Notre Dame Des Mers" ("Our Lady of the Seas") was constructed near the modern harbour on the foundations of an ancient church. It features a pink marble tabernacle whose foot is encrusted with a black marble anchor.
Pierre Bostani became Archbishop of Tyre on October 5, 1866.
Bostani was born in Debbié in November 1819 and ordained a Maronite priest on 12 October 1842. He was quickly called upon by the Archbishop of Tyre who named him as his private secretary. In 1845, Bostani was asked by the Maronite Patriarch to act as his private secretary and Vicar General of the Maronite Patriarchy. On 28 July 1856,
Maronite Patriarch Massad named him Coadjutor Archbishop of Tyre and Bishop of
Saint-John-Acre. Bostani travelled to Rome in June 1867 where he was named
Assistant to the Pontifical Throne by
Pope Pius IX on June 17, 1867. He personally headed the Maronite delegation that attended the
First Vatican Council in Rome in 1869.In 1965 the eparchy of Tyre was elevated to the rank of Archeparchy. After the kidnapping of Kevin Joyce, an
Irish soldier of the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), by Palestinian militants in April 1981, Archbishop
Maroun Khoury Sader worked with the Irish UNIFIL battalion in efforts to recover his remains. On 8 June 1996, the Archeparchy lost a portion of its territory for the creation of the
Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Haifa and the Holy Land. In 2005,
ancient remains - stone walls as well as
terracotta,
ivory objects, and
paintings - were discovered during
excavations underneath the cathedral. According to the Directorate General of Antiquities, it was a
Roman-era food store which had been built on the site of a building from the
Hellenistic period. It was apparently destroyed in the 6th century by an
earthquake. Next to the archaeological site in the basement is the
Sanctuary of the
Holy Martyrs of Tyre, which has a number of
relics on display, amongst them pieces of bones from
Saint Christina of Tyre. ==Eparchs==