[Jean-Charles Sournia, resident of Lyon Hospitals and Surgeons in Alep]

The article deals with the life and activity of J. Ch. Sournia from 1938 to 1966. Born in Bourges (France) in 1917, he studied at "l'Ecole du Service de Santé Militaire" in Lyon. In 1938 he became a non-resident student of Lyon Hospitals and a resident in 1943. Assistant of thoracic surgery by Professors Paul Santy and Marcel Bérard he underwent an advanced training course by Pr Crawford in Sweden. There he met his Swedish wife-to-be. Appointed professor of Surgery he taught Surgery in Alep and Anatomy in Beyrouth. In the same time he was interested in the History of Syria and its archeology during the Byzantine Centuries (from the IVth to the VIIth A. D.). While his wife was teaching literature at Rennes University he was appointed surgery professor at the Medical College in Rennes and wrote "the Middle-East of Primitive Christianity-History and Archaeology by Byzantine Syria" (Fayard 1966) in which he focused his study on monks who lived for long years on pillar top to be closer to God, like St Simeon.