Funeral services for Mrs. Ferris Thebit, formerly Mrs. Madelle Maloof of Rome, Georgia, were held form the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception last week. A member of a distinguished Lebanese-American family, which has given the Church two archbishops and numerous priests and nuns, she died suddenly in the presence of her son, Dr. Louis J. Maloof, Oglethorpe University professor.

Born in 1895, she and her husband, Charles S. Maloof, escaped Ottoman oppression by coming to America in 1911. They settled in Rome, Georgia, where Mr. Maloof’s father was a leading merchant. When her husband died in 1918, Mrs. Maloof, whose maiden name was also Maloof, assumed the family responsibilities with four children. In 1932, she married Ferris Thebit.

A descendant of the Chassanids, the first ruling family in history to accept the Catholic faith as a set religion, her mother was buried alive by the Ottoman Turks during World War I, when the family estate in Lebanon was confiscated. Mrs. Thebit’s lifelong comment was: “I would rather live as a pauper in a free America than in a castle abroad.”

Though a member of St. Joseph’s Maronite Church, her devotion to the Blessed Mother prompted her request that she be buried from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

In his eulogy, the Rev. Joseph Abi-Nader, St. Joseph’s pastor, extrolled “this mother’s piety, charity, and patience in her suffering.” He said that, “Because she was a fervent Catholic, she made prayer the most important duty in her life. She conversed with God as familiarly as a child with his parents.”

Celebrant of the Solemn Requiem was the Rev. Rene Maynard, O.F.M. of the Shrine, with the Rev. Theophilus McNulty, O.F.M., Georgia Tech chaplain, deacon, and the Rev. Felix McGrath, O.F.M., Oglethorpe University Chaplain. Sub-deacon master of ceremonies was the Rev. Linus Tigus, O.F.M.

Pontifical absolution was pronounced in the Maronite Rite by the Rt. Rev. Joseph F. Abi-Chedid, rector, St. Elias Church, Birmingham, Maronite Chor-Bishop of Alabama, assisted by Father Abi-Nader and the Rev. William Haddad, pastor of St. John’s Melkite Church. Chor-Bishop Abi-Chedie also presided at the burial in the family plot in Mt. Calvary Catholic section of Westview Cemetery.

In the sanctuary were the Very Rev. Mark Mages, O.S.B., prior, St. Bernard Abbey, Cullman, Ala., the Reverends Leonard Kelly, O.F.M., Shrine pastor, Adrian Donauer, O.S.B., of St. Bernard College; Simon Cherkauskas, O.C.S.O., Our Lady of the Holy Ghost Abbey, Conyers; John M. McDonough, pastor, St. Mary’s Church, Rome; Phillip Dagneau, S.M., of Marist College; and Patrick C. Connell, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home, Atlanta.

Pallbearers were Messers, Herbert Azar, Robert Maloof, Abe Abraham, Tommy Abraham, Joe Simon, N. Simon. Altar boys were from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Mrs. Thebit is survived by her husband, two sons, Dr. Maloof, and John W. Maloof, Atlanta attorney; two daughters, Mrs. Francis Shikany and Mrs. Michael Mansour, one sister, Mrs. Malakey Habib Maloof, a former Atlantan now residing in Zable, Lebanan; five grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews, all of Atlanta.