Patriarch of the Church of the East
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The patriarch of the Church of the East (also known as patriarch of the East, patriarch of Babylon, the catholicose of the East or the grand metropolitan of the East)
Catholicos–Patriarch of the Church of the East | |
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Holy See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon | |
Information | |
First holder | Thomas the Apostle (church tradition)[7] Papa bar Aggai (as bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon)[8] |
Denomination | Church of the East |
Rite | East Syriac Rite |
Cathedral | Church of Kokhe,[9][10] Veh-Ardashir[11] |
Language | Syriac |
Since 1552, rival patriarchal lines were established, traditionalist on one side and pro-Catholic on the other. In modern times, patriarchal succession is claimed from this office to the patriarchal offices of the successor churches: the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Ancient Church of the East.[12][13]
Early history of the Patriarchate of the East
The geographic location of the patriarchate was first in
The patriarchate of the Church of the East evolved from the position of the leader of the Christian community in
The conventional
Uncertain patriarchal succession, 1318–1552
The patriarch Yahballaha III died in November 1317, probably on Saturday 12 November.[25]
His successor
Denha II is conventionally believed to have been succeeded by the patriarchs
Eliya IV was succeeded by Shemʿon IV at an unknown date in the first half of the 15th century. Eliya's death has conventionally been placed in 1437 but must have been earlier, as a patriarch named Shemʿon is mentioned in a colophon of 1429/30.[29]
Eliya V was succeeded by the patriarch Shemʿon VI (1504–38), who died on 5 August 1538 and was buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd.[31] According to the colophon of a contemporary manuscript, the patriarchal throne was still vacant on 19 October 1538.[29]
Shemʿon's brother the metropolitan Ishoʿyahb Bar Mama, who had been natar kursya throughout his reign, is first mentioned as patriarch in a colophon of 1539.[29] Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb died on 1 November 1558 and was buried, like his predecessor, in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh.[31] His reign saw the schism of 1552 that resulted in the creation of the Shimun line in 1553.
'Shemon VIII Denha' and the schism of 1552
In 1552 a section of the Church of the East, angered by the appointment of minors to important episcopal positions by the patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb, revolted against his authority. The rebels elected in his stead Sulaqa, the superior of the monastery of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh, but were unable to consecrate him as no bishop of metropolitan rank was available, as canonically required. Franciscan missionaries were already at work among the Nestorians, and they persuaded Sulaqa's supporters to legitimize their position by seeking Sulaqa's consecration by Pope Julius III (1550–5). Sulaqa went to Rome, where he made a satisfactory Catholic profession of faith and presented a letter, drafted by his supporters in Mosul, which set out his claims to be recognized as patriarch. This letter, which has survived in the Vatican archives, grossly distorted the truth. The rebels claimed that the Nestorian patriarch Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb had died in 1551 and had been succeeded illegitimately by 'Shemʿon VIII Denha' (1551–8), a non-existent patriarch invented purely for the purpose of bolstering the legitimacy of Sulaqa's election. The Vatican was taken in by this fraud, and recognised Sulaqa as the founding patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in April 1553, thereby creating a lasting schism in the Church of the East. It was only several years later that the Vatican discovered that Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb was still alive.[32]
Patriarchal succession, 16th to 18th centuries
The patriarchal succession after the schism of 1552 is certain in the case of the Mosul patriarchate, because up to the beginning of the 19th century all but one of its patriarchs were buried in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd and their epitaphs, which give the date of their deaths, have survived. Shemʿon VII's successor Eliya VI died on 26 May 1591, after having been a metropolitan for 15 years and patriarch for 32 years;[33][34] Eliya VII on 26 May 1617; Eliya VIII on 18 June 1660; Eliya IX Yohannan on 17 May 1700; Eliya X Marogin on 14 December 1722; and Eliya XII Ishoʿyahb in 1804. Eliya XI Denha died of plague in Alqosh on 29 April 1778, and was exceptionally buried in the town rather than the monastery, which had been abandoned and locked up following a Persian attack in 1743.
The information available on Sulaqa and his successors is much less exact. The date of Sulaqa's election in 1552 is not known, but he was confirmed as 'patriarch of Mosul' by the Vatican on 28 April 1553, and was martyred at the beginning of 1555, probably (according to a contemporary poem of ʿAbdishoʿ IV) on 12 January. The date of ʿAbdishoʿ IV’s succession in 1555 is not known, but a colophon mentions that he died on 11 September 1570. The dates of Shemʿon VIII Yahballaha's succession and death (presumably in 1570 and 1580 respectively) are not known. Shemʿon IX Denha was elected patriarch in 1580 and (according to Assemani) died in 1600. Shemʿon X, elected in 1600, is said to have died in 1638, according to a later letter of Eliya XII (d. 1804) cited by Tisserant.[20]
Information on the patriarchal succession in the Qudshanis patriarchate for the remainder of the seventeenth and the whole of the 18th century is equally scanty. Several of the Qudshanis patriarchs who succeeded Shemʿon X corresponded with the Vatican, but the surviving correspondence does not enable individual patriarchs to be distinguished. The following list of 17th- and 18th-century Qudshanis patriarchs has conventionally been adopted, most recently by Fiey and (provisionally) by Wilmshurst: Shemʿon XI (1638–56), Shemʿon XII (1656–62), Shemʿon XIII Denha (1662–1700), Shemʿon XIV Shlemun (1700–40), Shemʿon XVI Mikhail Mukhtas (1740–80), and Shemʿon XVI Yohannan (1780–1820).[35][36]
These names and reign-dates were first given towards the end of the 19th century by the Anglican missionary William Ainger Wigram. A recently discovered list of Qudshanis patriarchs compiled after the First World War by the bishop Eliya of Alqosh, however, gives a completely different set of dates: Shemʿon X (1600–39); Shemʿon XI (1639–53); Shemʿon XII (1653–92); Shemʿon XIII Denha (1692–1700); and Shemʿon XIV Shlemun (1700–17).
Catholic
In 1681 a Catholic line of patriarchs who took the name Joseph was founded at Amid (Diyarbakr). The Patriarch of this church were:
Patriarchal succession, 19th and 20th centuries and at present
There were three Qudshanis patriarchs in the decades leading up to the First World War:
Catholic
The recognition of the Mosul patriarch
See also
- Ancient Christianity in the Indian subcontinent
- East Syriac Rite
- List of patriarchs of the Church of the East
- Patriarchal Province of Seleucia-Ctesiphon
- Church of the East
- Schism of 1552
- Chaldean Catholic Church
- Assyrian Church of the East
- Ancient Church of the East
- India (East Syriac ecclesiastical province)
- Primate of the East Indies
- Synod of Diamper
- Syro-Malabar Church
- Church of the East in China
- List of Chaldean Catholic patriarchs of Babylon
- List of patriarchs of the Assyrian Church of the East
- List of patriarchs of the Ancient Church of the East
References
- ^ Baum & Winkler (2003), p. 10.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-107-18627-9.
The head of the hierarchy of the Church of the East was the Catholicos-Patriarch of the East
- ^ Coakley (1999), p. 65, 66: "Catholikos-Patriarchs of the East who served on the throne of the church of koke in Seleucia-Ktesiphon".
- ^ Walker 1985, p. 172: "this church had as its head a "catholicos" who came to be styled "Patriarch of the East" and had his seat originally at Seleucia-Ctesiphon (after 775 it was shifted to Baghdad)".
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 4.
- ^ Vine, Aubrey R. (1937). The Nestorian Churches. London: Independent Press. p. 104.
- ISBN 9781838609344.
- ^ Stewart, John (1928). Nestorian Missionary Enterprise: A Church on Fire. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. p. 15.
- ISBN 978-1-4632-1620-7.
- ^ Cassis, Marica C. "Kokhe". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition.
- ^ "The Church in Kokhe".
- ^ Burleson & Rompay 2011, p. 481-491.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2019, p. 799–805.
- ^ Wigram 1910, p. 90.
- ^ Wigram 1910, p. 42-44.
- ^ Wigram 1910, p. 90-91.
- ^ Wigram 1910, p. 91.
- ^ "Histoire nestorienne inédite: Chronique de Séert. Première partie."
- ^ Fiey 1970, p. 64-65.
- ^ a b E. Tisserant, ‘L’Église nestorienne’, in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique XI.1 (1931), col. 260–63.
- ^ D. D. Benjamin, The patriarchs of the Church of the East (Translated from Assyrian into English by Y. A. Baaba) (2008). (includes a comparison of different existing lists)
- ^ H. Teule, Les Assyro-Chaldéens. Chrétiens d’Irak, d’Iran et de Turquie (Fils d’Abraham, 2008), 211–14.
- ^ J. F. Coakley, ‘The patriarchal list of the Church of the East’, in After Bardaisan. Studies on continuity and change in Syriac Christianity in honour of Professor Han J. W. Drijvers, ed. G. J. Reinink and A. C. Klugkist (OLA 89; 1999), 65–83. (includes comparative discussion of two lists, by Yawsep d-Beth Qelayta [1924, reprint 1955] and by Iskhaq Rehana d-Beth Gadda [1965, reprint 1988])
- ^ Burleson, Samuel; Rompay, Lucas Van. "List of Patriarchs of the Main Syriac Churches in the Middle East". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 3478.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 347.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 18-19.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 347-348.
- ^ a b c d Wilmshurst 2000, p. 348.
- ^ Vosté 1930, p. 283–285.
- ^ a b Vosté 1930, p. 286.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 21-22.
- ^ Murre van den Berg 1999, p. 243-244.
- ^ Baum & Winkler 2003, p. 116, 174.
- ^ Fiey 1993, p. 37.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 356-357.
Sources
- Assemani, Giuseppe Luigi (1775). De catholicis seu patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum commentarius historico-chronologicus. Roma.
- Assemani, Giuseppe Luigi (2004). History of the Chaldean and Nestorian Patriarchs. Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press.
- Assemani, Giuseppe Simone (1719). Bibliotheca orientalis clementino-vaticana. Vol. 1. Roma.
- ISBN 9781134430192.
- Baumer, Christoph (2006). The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. London-New York: Tauris. ISBN 9781845111151.
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- Burleson, Samuel; Rompay, Lucas van (2011). "List of Patriarchs of the Main Syriac Churches in the Middle East". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 481–491.
- Chabot, Jean-Baptiste (1902). Synodicon orientale ou recueil de synodes nestoriens (PDF). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
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- Coakley, James F. (2001). "Mar Elia Aboona and the History of the East Syrian Patriarchate". Oriens Christianus. 85: 119–138. ISBN 9783447042871.
- Fiey, Jean Maurice (1970). Jalons pour une histoire de l'Église en Iraq. Louvain: Secretariat du CSCO.
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- Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908765.
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- Zora, Subhi (1994). "Some Outstanding Events in the History of the Chaldean Christians of the East (1551-1992)". VI Symposium Syriacum 1992. Roma: Pontificium institutum studiorum orientalium. pp. 347–359. ISBN 9788872103050.