About the Author

Because he goes beyond the few details given in most lists of Orthodox Saints, Bishop Demetri Khoury's words make the many Saints of Palestine real living and breathing people. In stirring language, he describes their struggles, triumphs and contributions to the growth of Christ's Kingdom. Because like them, he is a son of the Holy Land, Bishop Demetri is uniquely qualified to relate the inspiring stories of the men and women who served Christ's Church in the land of its birth. Born in the Taybeh in 1948, he began his formal education for the priesthood at Balamand, the theological seminary of the Patriarchate of Antioch and graduated from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston in 1978. A priest since 1975, Bishop Demetri served parishes of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America including the cathedrals in Miami and. In 1995, His Beatitude, Ignatius IV, the Patriarch of Antioch consecrated Fr. Demetri to the episcopate. The chairman of the Department of Liturgics and Translations of the Antiochian Archdiocese from 1978 to 1988, Bishop Demetri has used his talents as a translator and scholar to produce several important works such as the first Liturgical Guide of the Antiochian Archdiocese, The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, a service book for Orthodox Bishops and more recently the first translation of the Typikon of the Patriarchate of Antioch. Bishop Demetri is now retired and lives in Miami.