Archbishop Nersès (Joseph) Zabarian (Zabbara)

Nersès (Joseph) Zabbara was born in Aleppo (Syria) on June 6, 1969. He entered the seminary in Aleppo in 1990 and the one in Rome in 1992. After a preparatory year at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, he pursued studies in philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, obtaining a bachelor's degree in both disciplines. On October 31, 1999, he was ordained a priest for the Archeparchy of Aleppo. He served in various pastoral roles: parochial vicar of Saint Barbara Parish in Aleppo (1999–2002), school principal (2002–2004), pastor of the Holy Cross Parish (2004–2016), and teacher at the Institute of Christian Theology in Aleppo. In 2016, he was appointed Eparchial Administrator of the Archeparchy of Baghdad. In addition to Armenian and Arabic, he speaks Italian, French, and English.