AMBARACH, PETER (MUBARACH, BENEDICTUS)

Seventeenth century Maronite Jesuit, Oriental scholar; b. Gusta, Lebanon, June 1663; d. Rome, Aug. 25, 1742. Ambarach, known in Italy as Pietro Benedetti, studied at the Maronite College in Rome (1672–85), and was ordained in Lebanon by the Maronite Patriarch Stephen al–Duwaihi (Aldoensis) who sent him back to Rome in 1691 to defend the validity of Syriac ordinations against the charges of Jean morin. Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, named him director of the Oriental Press at Florence, and he accepted the chair of Sacred Scripture at Pisa. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Rome on Oct. 30, 1707, and became a member of Pope Clement XI's commission for the critical edition of the Greek Bible. At the request of Cardinal Querini he started a Latin translation of the work of St. ephrem, which he left unfinished. Among his publications are a Latin translation of Stephen al–Duwaihi's Defense of Syriac Ordinations and the Maronite Liturgy; a Vita Arabica S. Alexii [Acta Sanctorum, July 4 (1725) 266–270]; a partial edition of the Menologium of the Emperor basil ii in Greek and Latin (completed by Clement XI and published, Urbino 1727); a history of the persecutions under the Persian King Sapor and his successors, written with the aid of C. Maiella; a revision of the Works of St. Ephraem in Greek and Syriac (3 v. 1737–43; see assemani, joseph simon); and some verse and letters, including an exchange with Apollonio Bassetti.

Bibliography: c. sommervogel et al., Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 11 v. (Brussels–Paris 1890–1932) 1:1295–98. e. m. riviÈre, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912—) 2:1014–15. a. fabroni, Vitae Italorum doctrina excellentium, 18 v. (Pisa 1778–99) 11:174–185.

[p. joannou]