He stayed for a few days with the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Abdul Masih II, at the monastery of Mar Abraham in Thurabdeen. Then he travelled to Mardeen and reached Kurkuma Dayara where he stayed for about nine months and studied several rare books in Syriac. In 1908 he was elevated to the monastic order of Ramban by Patriarch Ignatius Abdulla at St. Mark's Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem.