Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir was born on May 15, 1920 at Reyfoun in French Mandate Lebanon. Ordained Maronite priest in 1950, Nasrallah rose through the Maronite hierarchy — being consecrated auxiliary bishop in 1961.
On April 19, 1986, Nasrallah was elected Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East — the head of the Maronite Catholic Church (the largest Christian denomination in Lebanon, continuously in communion with Rome since 1180).
During the systematic Syrian occupation of Lebanon (1976–2005), Nasrallah undertook the systematic public denunciation of the Syrian occupation — famously composing the September 20, 2000 Maronite Bishops' Declaration demanding the immediate withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
The September 2000 Declaration became the institutional catalyst of the Cedar Revolution (2005) — the Lebanese popular uprising that forced the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon on April 26, 2005.
Nasrallah was created Cardinal by Pope St. John Paul II on November 26, 1994. He retired as Patriarch in 2011.
He died at Beirut on May 12, 2019 at the age of 98. Cause of canonization opened.