MEMORY ETERNAL!

On January 25, the Antiochian Orthodox priest and monk Basilios Nassar was shot in Hama, Syria during heavy fighting there. Fr. Basilios was administering first aid to a parishioner who was wounded. The Patriarchate of Antioch has reported that the 30-year-old priest was shot while giving medical aid to the wounded man. Fr. was shot in the chest and in the right armpit. Immediately another priest, Fr. Panteleimon Isa, dragged him to a nearby building to save him, but Father Basilios died within 30 minutes from hemorrhaging. His funeral took place on January 26th, at the Church of Saint George in Hama.

The blessed Father Basilios, was born Mazin Nassar in 1982 in the village of Kfarmpo in Hama. He was a graduate of the St. John of Damascus Theological School at the Balamand in Lebanon. Fr. Basilios was a teacher of Byzantine Music at the Saint Cosmos the Melodist school which he founded at the Archdiocese of Hama.  He was much loved by the youth and adults of his parish and diocese.  A devoted priest, Fr. Basilios was known for his genuine pastoral care and sincere love for others.  He died trying to help a wounded parishioner, and thereby fulfilled the words of Christ; “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” [John 15:13].

Several members of our community knew Fr. Basilios personally including Bishop +JOHN who knew him when he taught Pastoral Theology at the Balamand, and Fr. Elias who knew him from religious conferences in Jordan.  Today we offer a Trisagion Service for the repose of his blessed soul and pray that his ‘Memory Be Eternal’.