George Riashi

George Riashi (Qaa el Reem, near Zahlé, Lebanon on November 25, 1933 – October 28, 2012) was the Greek Melkite Catholic bishop of Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tripoli and all North Lebanon.

George Riashi was one of nine children of Khattar and Zahia Riashi. Until 1948 he attended the local school and then moved to the Saint John's Basilian Seminary. Until 1953, he remained in the Basilian seminary and made his temporal vows. His religious name was Athanasius, according to Athanasius of Alexandria. Riashi started his religious studies to become a priest in 1955 in the Basilian Chouerite Order's Mar Yohanna Seminary in Khenchara and later in Saint Joseph University in Beirut in the American University of Beirut. From 1958 to 1965 Riashi studied philosophy, theology, computer science and mathematics. In 1962 he became a subdeacon and 1963 was ordained deacon. Riashi was ordained to the priesthood on 4 April 1965, but took off his name Athanasius and bore the name of George, being a member of the Basilian Chouerite Order. In France he continued his studies, receiving a scholarship at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Then Riashi went back to Lebanon and taught for the next five years at the Basilian Saint John Seminary. At the same time he devoted himself to work in the Scout movement and was the Chaplain-General of them in Lebanon. and until 1969 was the head of Choueriot Seminary. He was appointed principal of Saint Antoine Secondary School in Kfarshima, Lebanon for a year, before serving in the United States from 1970 until 1987. On December 1, 1971 Riachi came to Detroit sent and supported there by Archimandrite Agabios in his office. He took over in 1978 pastoral work to Melkites in Detroit and was named Archimandrite on 21 July 1981 by Patriarch Maximos V Hakim.

In 1987, he was appointed by the Holy Synod of the Melkite Church as first Bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saint Michael Archangel in Sydney. The Patriarch of Antioch Maximos V Hakim was his consecrator and his co-consecrators were Archbishop Joseph Tawil of Newton and Archbishop Jean Mansour, SMSP, Auxiliary Bishop of Antioch, and his episcopal ordination was performed on 19 July 1987. In 1995 Pope John Paul II named him Bishop of Tripoli and all the North. In this office, Riashi was a participant in the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (Catholic) on the Middle East. In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI accepted his age-related withdrawal.

On 28 October 2012, Riashi died.