Mgr. Armando Bortolaso left us on 8/1/2019

July 1926 he was born in Villagarzela in Italy

August 1936 he went to the school of Don Bosco” Castelnuovo Don Bosco”

16 August 1943 he presented his first vows as a Salesian friar in( villa Moglia di Chieri- Torino)

25 June 1949 he presented his eternal vows in Istanbul.

1943 to 1946 he studied philosophy in ( Foglizzo – Torino) and got his degree as a teacher in Torino 1946.

1949 to 1953 he studied theology in Palestine in Al Tantour monastery near Bethlehem.

5 July 1953 the Latin patriarch Mgr Alberto Gori has consecrated him as a priest in Jerusalem.

1953 to 1956 he served in the Salesian industrial school (ortario) as a responsible of the youth.

1956 to 1958 served in the theological institute (Krimzan monastery) near Bethlehem as a spiritual guide.

For him, Aleppo was more than a part in his life, on 1956 and for six years he was appointed the headmaster of the (George Salem industrial school) and he was the main reason for the development and improvement of this establishment.

1986 to 1992 he came back to Aleppo as the parish priest.

14 July 1992 when he finished his service as parish priest Pope John Paul 2nd gave him an Honorable bishop title and named him as the Apostolic Vicar of the Latin in Syria, so he lived in Aleppo and served for ten years until 2002 when he resigned his position as a bishop.

After his resignation, he chose to go back to his friars in the ( Don Bosco center) Al Hsoun Lebanon where he lived there until the day he passed away 8/1/2019.

Today we bid farewell with all love and respect to his memory and to everything that he left in our souls.

Our bishop George Abou Khazen told us that each time he visited him he kept asking about Aleppo and its people and the church and reassuring that Aleppo’s church is stronger than the difficulties and it will stand up again to continue its activities.

Every person that has ever visited him came out to describe his visit as a meeting with an angel from the sky.