 An 1862 publication on the history of Lebanon states that Bishop Tobia was responsible for the conversion to Catholicism of Medjid Shehab, grandson of the famed Prince Beshir II.Having gone into exile to Constantinople with his grandfather Bashir II, Medjid had returned to Lebanon and was supported by Aoun and the Maronites as a possible candidate for governor of Mount Lebanon.In 1876, the French author and diplomat Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé wrote of "the savage and heroic figure of Bishop Tobias leading his flock to combat".