His text-book in the instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St.
Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites.
From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirut, and of several Arab chiefs.
These frequent changes were apparently not for his advantage.
He next made application in person to his old college instructor, who had been elevated to the Patriarchal chair.

His holiness gave him a cool reception, and reproached him for having preferred the service of sheikhs and princes to that of his bishop.

Yet so valuable were his services, that he remained a while with the Patriarch, copying, illustrating, and arranging certain important documents of the Patriarchate, and making out from them a convenient code of church-laws for the Maronite nation, which has since been adopted for general use.

But for some reason Asaad felt himself unwelcome, and returned home dissatisfied.
At this time the Maronite priesthood began to be alarmed by the distribution of the Scriptures, and the spread of Protestantism.

The Patriarch issued a proclamation against the missionaries, and they replied.