Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin (1887– 3 March 1918) (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܒܢܝܡܝܢ ܫܡܥܘܢ ܥܣܪܝܢ ܘܩܕܡܝܐ) served as the 117th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East.
Benyamin XIX Shimun | |
|---|---|
| His Holiness | |
 Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin on or before 1913 | |
| Church | Church of the East |
| Diocese | Patriarchal Diocese of Qodshanis |
| See | Holy Apostolic See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon |
| Installed | 30 March 1903 |
| Term ended | 3 March 1918 |
| Predecessor | Mar Shimun XVIII Rouel (1860/1861-1903) |
| Successor | Mar Shimun XX Paulos (1918–1920) |
| Orders | |
| Rank | Catholicos-Patriarch |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1887 |
| Died | 3 March 1918 (aged 30) Salmas, Persia |
| Nationality | Assyrian |
| Denomination | Christian, Assyrian Church of the East |
| Residence | Qodshanis, Hakkari, Turkey and later Urmia, Persia |
| Occupation | Cleric |
Life
editHe was born in 1887 in the village of Qochanis in the Hakkari Province, Ottoman Empire (modern-day southeastern Turkey). His paternal uncle and immediate predecessor was Mar Shimun XVIII Rubil, patriarch from 1860 to 1903). His father was Eshai, a brother of Shimun XVIII Rubil, and his mother was Asyat, daughter of Kambar from Iyl. He had six siblings: Isaiah, Zaya, Paulos (who succeeded him as Patriarch), David, Hormizd, Surma.[1] His brother Hormizd was later killed while studying in Istanbul during the Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915.[citation needed]
He was consecrated a Metropolitan on March 1, 1903, by his uncle, the Catholicos Patriarch, who died on March 16, 1903. He was eighteen years old when he succeeded to the position and occupied the patriarchal See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon at Qudshanis for 15 years.
Death
editIn 3 March 1918, Mar Benyamin along with many of his 150 bodyguards were assassinated by Simko Shikak (Ismail Agha Shikak), a Kurdish agha, in the town of Kuhnashahir in Salmas (Persia) under a truce flag (see Assyrian genocide).[2][3]
Quotes
edit- "It is impossible for me and my people to surrender after seeing the atrocities done to my Assyrian people by your government; therefore my brother is one, my people are many, I would rather lose my brother but not my nation."[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Shumanov, Vasily. "Mar Binyamin Shimmun". The Lighthouse.
- ^ "The Invitation of His Holiness the Patriarch Mar Binyamin".
- ^ Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century by Sargon Donabed. Edinburgh University Press.
- ^ Mar Benyamin
Sources
edit- Baum, Wilhelm; Winkler, Dietmar W. (2003). The Church of the East: A Concise History. London-New York: Routledge-Curzon. ISBN 9781134430192.
- Baumer, Christoph (2006). The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. London-New York: Tauris. ISBN 9781845111151.
- Coakley, James F. (1992). The Church of the East and the Church of England: A History of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198267447.
- Coakley, James F. (1996). "The Church of the East since 1914". The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 78 (3): 179–198. doi:10.7227/BJRL.78.3.14.
- Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908765.
- Wilmshurst, David (2011). The martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East. London: East & West Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781907318047.
External links
edit- Official site of the Assyrian Church of the East
- The Invitation of the Patriarch Mar Binyamin at www.aina.org (First-hand account by Malik Daniel Bar Malik Ismail of Mar Benyamin's assassination)
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