He was born in Beirut, modern-day Lebanon, to Damascene Syrian parents of the Antiochian Orthodox faith who had come to Beirut fleeing a massacre of Christians in Damascus.[3] He was first educated at the Damascus Patriarchal School that had become the leading Greek Orthodox institution of higher learning in the Levant under the leadership of Joseph of Damascus. He furthered his study of Christian theology at the Patriarchical Halki seminary in Constantinople, and at the Theological Academy in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Ukraine).