Habib Khasha

Holy Hieromartyr Habib Khasha was the eldest son of the Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Khasha of Damascus. Though successful in business, he decided to be ordained a priest and served at Damascus and Cairo. His ministry was marked by a life of prayer, by loving and self-⁠sacrificing care for the faithful and by closeness to the poor, whom he fed like his own family, from the food and money sent by his brothers, remaining poor himself.

His life was crowned with a martyr's death on Mount Hermon, where smugglers beat him to death because he was a Christian priest, fulfilling his desire to follow his father in martyrdom. He died on 16 July 1948.

The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch canonized them both, father and son, on 19 October 2023, at Balamand, and decided that their memory be kept every year on 16 July. Father Nicholas was martyred at Mersin in 1917.