Our Clergy
His Eminence Metropolitan SABA
Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America.
His Eminence Metropolitan SABA · Archbishop of New York and All North America
Shepherd of the Archdiocese of North America
His Eminence, the Most Reverend Saba (Isper) is the Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He was elected to lead the Archdiocese by His Beatitude Patriarch John X and the Holy Synod of Antioch on February 23, 2023, at Balamand, Lebanon, and oversees the Archdiocese’s parishes, missions, departments, and institutions across the United States and Canada.
Metropolitan Saba was born in Latakia, Syria, in 1959. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tishreen and a bachelor’s degree in theology from the St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology at Balamand. Ordained to the priesthood in 1988 and elevated to the dignity of archimandrite in 1994, he pastored St. Michael the Archangel Church in Latakia, and from 1995 to 2006 taught pastoral care and Old Testament at Balamand. In 1999 he was elected Metropolitan of Bosra, Hauran, and Jabal Al-Arab in Syria.
His ministry there was marked by works of mercy — medical clinics, student dormitories, homes for retirees, a retreat center, agricultural projects, and Bread for All, which feeds the poor regardless of religion. A prolific writer, editor, and translator, he has published magazines for children and adults, authored books on pastoral life and theology, and rendered into Arabic works of Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, and others. His patron is St. Sabbas the Sanctified, commemorated December 5.
Our shepherd in North America
Saint George Cathedral commemorates Metropolitan SABA in every Divine Liturgy as our chief shepherd in North America.
