Patriarch

Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, the 122nd successor to St. Peter in the Apostolic See of Antioch, completes 25 years in the Patriarchal See on the day of the Feast of Holy Cross, 2005. The Universal Syrian Church with its flocks spread over many nations, celebrates this unique historic occasion, of His Holiness's Silver Jubilee of the Patriarchal enthronement, with great fervour and enthusiasm. It was on September 14, 1980, the Holy father was enthroned as the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church.

H.H. Mor Ignatios Peter IV came to Malankara in 1876 and convened the Mulanthuruthy Synod at Mulanthuruthy Mar Thoman Church. This synod was pivotal in the history of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church. It divided Malankara into six dioceses and created the Malankara Association, the governing body for the Malankara Church.

His Holiness ordained six bishops for each diocese including Mor Gregorius (Parumala Kochu Thirumeni) at St. Thomas Church, N. Parur. His Holiness passed away at 4 am on Monday, September 26, 1894.

Mor Ignatios Elias III was the 119th legitimate successor to St. Peter on the Holy Patriarchal See of Antioch. The second son of Chorepiscopus Abraham and Maryam, he was born in Mardin and christened Nasri. He had 4 brothers and 3 sisters. After the death of his mother, Nasri was raised in the care of his elder sister Helena. He worked as a shoemaker in his teens and served in the government briefly for 3 months.

At Patriarch Peter IV's direction, Nasri joined the theological school in the name of the forty martyrs. In 1887, he joined Deir al-Za`faran and was ordained deacon in 1887 by Patriarch Peter IV. He became a sharwoyo (novitiate) in 1888 and a monk in 1889 upon which he took the name Elias. Elias was ordained qashisho (priest; lit. presbyter) in 1892 by Patriarch Peter IV.

In the waning years of the 19th century, numerous Armenian and Syriac Christians were massacred in Turkey. Qashisho Elias endeared himself to the Armenian Christians providing refuge for about 7000 in the monastery of Mor Quryaqos. He was later appointed the reesh dayroyo of the Mor Quryaqos as well as Deir al-Za`faran. In 1908 Qashisho Elias was consecrated bishop of Amid (Diyarbakr) by Patriarch `Abded Aloho II with the name Mor Iwanius. In 1912, he was transferred to Mosul where he served until his elevation to the patriarchate in 1917.

After Patriarch `Abded Aloho passed away on Nov 26, 1915, Mor Iwanius was elected Patriarch and assumed the throne in 1917. The firman (decree) was issued by the Ottoman sultan Muhammad Rashid, who Patriarch Elias III visited in 1919 at Istanbul; the sultan conferred the Ismania medal on the Patriarch during the visit. In 1922, when civil war broke out in Turkey and Gazi Mustafa Keman Pasha assumed leadership of the newly formed democracy, Mor Elias III spent a few months in Jerusalem. He established a printing press there and began publication of journals in Syriac and Arabic.

Patriarch Mor Elias III at Bethlehem in 1924. Source: Anton Kiraz's Archive.
Mor Elias III was the last Patriarch to reign at the Kurkmo Dayro (Deir Za`faran) in Mardin, the seat of the Patriarchate for most of the second millenium. Following the massacre of the Syriac Christians in South East Turkey in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and during World War I, the Patriarch was forced to leave Mardin. In the aftermath of the saypho massacres, Mor Elias III undertook pastoral tours in the Middle East, the first in 1919 and the second in 1925 to Aleppo and Jerusalem. Mor Elias III held a synod Dayro d-Mor Matay in 1930.

Lord Irwin, then British Viceroy to India, wrote to the Patriarch on December 1, 1930 requesting his intervention in person or through a delegate in resolving the schism that had erupted in the Malankara Church. His Holiness responded to the Viceroy's letter accepting his invitation with certain conditions on December 15, 1930. Given his cardiac problems, his doctors attempted to dissuade him from the trip in vain. His 75 year old sister also could not persuade the Patriarch; His Holiness said to her, "Death is inevitable whether here or in India; I would rather sacrifice my life for the sake of our children in Malankara." Mor Elias III left Mosul on February 6, 1931 accompanied by Mor Clemis Yuhanon Abbachi, Rabban Quryaqos (later Mor Ostathios Quryaqos), and Rabban Yeshu` Samuel (later Mor Athanasius Samuel of North America), his secretary Zkaryo Shakir (his brother Joseph's son) and translator Elias Ghaduri. They set sail to India on February 28, 1931 from Basra on the ship "Warsova" and disembarked at the Karachi port on March 5, 1931. They were received at Karachi by the Patriarchal Delegate Mor Yulius Elias Qoro, Mor Athanasius Paulos of Alwaye and several clergymen and faithful. On March 6, 1931, the Patriarch and his entourage proceeded to Delhi by train reaching there on the 8th and visited Lord Irwin. On March 14th, the Patriarch arrived at Madras and stayed as a guest of the British Governor Sir George Staly. From there, he arrived at the Thrikkunathu Seminary in Alwaye on March 21st, and offered the divine liturgy there on March 22nd.

H.H. Mor Elias III convened conciliatory meetings at Alwaye, Karingachira, Panampady and Kuruppumpady. The Patriarch lead the passion week services at Karingachira. A church delegates meeting was held at Kuruppumpady on July 5, 1931. The denho (Epiphany) services in January 1932 were at the church in Pakkil.

On February 11, 1932, at the invitation of Qashisho Kuriakos Elavinamannil, the Patriarch arrived at the Manjinikkara Mor Stephanos church from Kallissery. The inability to bring about reconciliation in the church had weighed down heavily on the Patriarch; moreover, the hardships of the long travel had taken its toll on His Holiness. On arriving at Manjinikkara, the Patriarch said, "This place offers us much comfort; we desire to remain here permanently." On February 12th, His Holiness requested the priests who came to visit him not to leave for a couple of days. In the evening, the Patriarch recited many prayers of the qandilo (unction) and contemplated on the departed. On February 13th, Mor Clemis Yuhanon Abbachi offered the Holy Qurbono; His Holiness gave the sermon during the liturgy. After the noon prayers and lunch, as was his routine, the Patriarch spent time recording events in his journal; he asked for a dictionary to get clarification for the meaning of a word. Following that, he paced about complaining of pain in his head. Soon he fainted and was placed on a cot by the monks where he slipped away into eternal rest at 2:30 pm. Many eye witnesses recount the deep gloom that cast its spell in the area that evening and the wails of the monks who accompanied the Patriarch.
Tomb of Patriarch Elias III at Manjinikkara
Different opinions arose regarding the final resting place for the Patriarch—a situation that the church in Malankara never had to confront before. The decision was in favor of interring the mortal remains in a plot of land to the north of the Mor Stephanos church, the title deed of which was transferred to the Patriarchate. On February 14th, the funeral services for His Holiness were held there. The Mor Ignatios Dayro church was built by the Patriarchal delegate Mor Yulius Elias Qoro over the tomb of the late Patriarch.
Tomb of Patriarch Elias III at Manjinikkara
The memory of the holy Patriarch is revered throughout the Syriac Orthodox Church and especially in Malankara where thousands of pilgrims reach the tomb by foot on the annual feast day, February 13, from various parts of the Kerala state. Mor Elias III is the only Patriarch of Antioch whose remains are interred in Malankara and his tomb stands as a towering symbol of the sacrifices made by the Syriac fathers to nurture the church in Malankara.
Tomb of Patriarch Elias III at Manjinikkara
On October 20, 1987, Patriarch Mor Zakka I through encyclical E265/87 permitted the Church in Malankara to remember his name in the fifth diptych.

Tomb of Patriarch Elias III at Manjinikkara.
Source: Photos taken in December 2000.

Sources:

* Kiraz, G.A. (ed.), The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Syriac Heritage. (Forthcoming).
* Souvenir of St. George's Church, Karingachira, 1980.
* Christine Chaillot, The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, (Geneva: Inter-Orthodox Dialogue, 1998), 146-147.
* Paulos, Rabban Aphrem, The Fathers from al-Sham (trans. to Malayalam by Fr. T.J. Abraham, Sheemakkaraya Pithakkanmar) (Manjinikkara: Mor Ignatios Dayro, 1964).
* John, V.C. H.H. Moran Mor Ignatius Elias III (Malayalam) (Chingavanam: S.J. Book Depot, 1982).
* Kulathramannil, Fr. Joseph, Suriyani sabha jyothissukal (Malayalam) (Udayagiri: Seminary Publications, 1996).
* Kaniamparambil, V. Rev. Curian, Five Saints (Malayalam) (Thiruvalla: author; 2003).
* Rajan, Fr. K.M., "St. Patriarch Ignatius Elias III" (Malayalam), The Journal of the Kottayam Diocese 8:11 (February 2004), 5-7.

Patriarch Mor Ignatios Aphrem I Barsoum was born on June 15, 1887, in Mosul, Iraq. He received his early education in a private Dominican school, studying French and Turkish as well as religious literature and history; later he learned Arabic under the training of Muslim scholars. At the Deir al-Za`faran monastery in Mardin, Turkey, where he started his theological training in 1905, he studied the Syriac language and literature. After his ordination as a priest in 1908, he remained at the monastery to teach, and in 1911 he assumed the additional responsibility of managing the monastery press. Later that year he began a scholar's visit to the monasteries and churches of Mesopotamia and Turkey. Soon after his return in 1913 he made a similar trip to examine Syriac manuscripts in the great libraries of Europe.

On May 20, 1918, Patriarch Elias III consecrated Aphrem as metropolitan Mor Severius and named him the bishop of Syria. After World War I, he gained national recognition not only as a man of religion, but also as a man of learning. He championed the cause of Syrian unity, winning firm popular support by his admonition to the French to regard themselves as liberators rather than conquerors. In 1919, he was chosen to represent the national rights of the Syrian community in the peace settlement at Paris. He was disillusioned, however, by the atmosphere of self-interest which prevailed among the delegates representing the European powers, and at one stage of the conference found himself defending not only the rights of the Syrians, but those of the Arab nations. Though Mor Severius did not succeed in protecting the Syrian's interests at Paris, the journey gave him ample opportunity for further study of Syriac literature before his return in May, 1920. Two years later, the League of Nations' action making Syria a French mandate brought him the new responsibility of providing for refugees from Cilicia, and he also undertook the building of many new churches in and near Aleppo.

Another journey took Mor Severius to Geneva and Lausanne as an apostolic delegate to the World Conference on Faith and Order (August 3-21, 1927). Soon afterwards he came as an emissary of the Patriarch to the United States, where he investigated the condition of the Syriac Orthodox Church, consecrated three new churches, and ordained new priests. He also gave lectures on the Syriac language and literature at the Providence University and the University of Chicago, and served at the Oriental Institute of the latter institution until his return in 1929.

After the death of Patriarch Elias III in 1932, the Synod of Bishops named Mor Severius his acting successor. On January 30, 1933, he was formally elected Patriarch of Antioch, assuming the ecclesiastical name of Mor Ignatius Aphrem I Barsoum. The new Patriarch quickly showed himself as an active Church head, establishing new dioceses and founding a theological seminary at Zahla, Lebanon (later moved to Mosul, and then to Beirut). In the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the political situation in the new state of Turkey, where Deir al-Za`faran, the seat of the Patriarchate, was located, Mor Aphrem was forced to relocate the Patriarchate to Homs in Syria. The great Patriarch passed away on June 23, 1957 and was buried in Homs.

Despite the numerous responsibilities of his work in the Church and frequent interruptions for travel, the Patriarch devoted much of his time to writing. Chief among his published works are the following:

1. treatise refuting al-Zahra al-Dhakiya fi al-Batriyarkiyya al-Suryaniyya al-Antakiyya, written by Ishaq Armala in 1909. After this refutation appeared in 1910, Armala apparently replied, for Barsoum published another refutation in 1912.
2. Kitab al-Tuhfa al-Ruhiyya fi al-Salat al-Fardiyya ("The Golden Key of the Obligatory Prayers"), 1911.
3. al-Zahra al-Qudsiyya fi al-Talim al-Masihi ("The Divine Flower of the Christian Catechism"), 1912.
4. Nuzhat al-Adhhan fi Tarikh Dayr al-Zafaran ("The Excursion of the Mind in the History of Za`faran"), 1912.
5. a translation of Tahdibh al-Akhlaq ("The Training of Characters"), by Yahya Ibn Adi, published in the Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature, 1928.
6. an edition of Bar `Ebroyo's Risala fi Ilm al-Nafs al-Insaniyya ("A Treatise on the Human Soul"), 1938.
7. a translation of Bar `Ebroyo's Kitab Hadith al-Hikma ("The Speech of Wisdom"), 1940.
8. al-Durar al-Nafisa fi Mukhtasar Tarikh al-Kanisa ("The Precious Pearls of the Compendious History of the Church"), 1940.
9. al-Lulu al-Manthur ("The Unstrung Pearls"), 1943.
10. al-Alfaz al-Suryaniyya fi al-Maajim al-Arabiyya ("Syriac Words in the Arabic Lexicons"), 1951.
11. Qithar al-Qulub ("The Harp of the Hearts"), a volume of collected poems, published in 1954.

Patriarch Aphrem produced many other works which have never been published. His Syriac-Arabic lexicon and his compendium of church history in the 20th century are written in both Syriac and Arabic. His history of Tur `Abdin, in Syriac, was translated into Arabic by Bishop Bahnam. In Arabic, he also wrote a history of the Patriarchs of Antioch and the famous men of the Syriac Church, a history of Syriac Orthodox dioceses, an index of Syriac manuscripts, and translations of ten liturgies of the Syrian Church. Also, he translated into Arabic the second part of the Ecclesiastical History of Bar `Ebroyo in 1909 when he was a monk at the Monastery of Za`faran.

Source:

Patriarch Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum, The History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. tr. Matti Mousa. (Pueblo, CO: Passeggiata Press, 2000).

Mor Ignatios Ya`qub III
Mor Ignatios Ya`qub III was born on October 12, 1912 in the Touma Mari family of Bartalla village in Iraq. He was ordained deacon by Patriarch Elias III and priest by Patriarch Mor Aphrem I. He came to Manjinikkara, India, in 1933 as Rabban `Abdel Ahad where he served as a malphono (teacher) at the Mor Ignatios Dayro. In 1946, he returned to the Middle East to teach at the Mor Ephrem Seminary in Mosul and was ordained Metropolitan of Beirut and Damascus in 1950. In 1957, he was consecrated Patriarch after the Patriarch Aphrem I passed away. His Holiness worked actively for cooperation among the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the reconciliation of the Church in India. In 1964 His Holiness visited Malankara and consecrated Augen Timotheous as Catholicos to establish peace in the church. However, this peace, unfortunately, lasted only for a few years.

Patriarch Ya`qub wrote more than 30 thirty books about the history of the Church, spirituality and liturgy including a History of the Church until the 6th century, a History of the Syrian Church in India, a comparative study of Syriac and Arabic languages, and Personageaphies of Mor Ephrem, Mor Philoxenus of Mabbug, and Mor Ya`qub of Serugh. His lecture on the Syrian Orthodox Church at the University of Goettingen in 1971 is considered an authoritative source by students of the church.

Patriarch Ya`qub is considered to be one of the masters, if not the master of Syriac music in this century. He was endowed with a sharp memory that enabled him to memorize over 700 hundred melodies of the Beth Gazo including variants (Shuhlophe). He had a voice of a "nightingale" as Patriarch Zakka I tells us. He learned the Beth Gazo from another master of Syriac music, Mor Yulios Elias Qoro, then Patriarchal Delegate in India. He was familiar with his native school of music in Iraq (the School of Takrit) as well as the more popular School of Mardin. During a five-month visit to the United States (from March 11 - August 15, 1960), Patriarch Ya`qub, at the request of Metropolitan Mor Athanasius Yeshu` Samuel, the late archbishop of the United States and Canada, recorded the Beth Gazo according to the School of Mardin. Thus recording serves as the authoritative reference to the musical tradition of the School of Mardin.

Patriarch Ya`qub is fondly remembered for his spiritually uplifting celebration of the liturgy. He encouraged many to accept the monastic way of life. After he consecrated holy myron in the Mor Gabriel monastery in 1964, myron flowed from the glass container the following day and people were healed by it. His Holiness entered into heavenly abode on June 26, 1980.

The Holy Father signing the resolution adopted at the 2nd Mulanthuruthy Synod held on September 27, 2004