The Chaldean diocese of Gazarta, named for the town of Jezira (modern Cizre), known in Syriac as Gazarta d'Beth Zabdai, was established on a stable basis in the early nineteenth century. Many of the Assyrians of the Gazarta region, including the bishop of Gazarta Pilipus Yaqub Orahim, were killed during the Assyrian genocide during 1914-1918. On 3 July 1957, it was suppressed and its territory divided between the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Diarbekir (Amida), the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Aleppo and the newly established Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Beirut.
The first nineteenth-century bishop of Gazarta was Giwargis Peter di Natale, who was consecrated for Gazarta in 1833 by the patriarch Yohannan VIII Hormizd and transferred to the diocese of ʿAmadiya in 1842.
The patriarch Nicholas I Zayʿa appointed Basil Asmar, previously administrator of the diocese of Amid, to the diocese of Gazarta in 1842. Basil was metropolitan of Gazarta for nine years, and Badger noted in 1850 that 'he seldom resides at Jezeerah'. [1] He retired due to old age and ill health in 1851.
The patriarch Joseph VI Audo sent the priest ʿAbdishoʿ Dosho (later metropolitan of ʿAmadiya) to Gazarta in his place for a year, and appointed Jerome Paul Hindi metropolitan of Gazarta in 1852. Hindi was metropolitan of Gazarta until 1873, and was succeeded by Eliya Peter ʿAbulyonan (1874–8), who became patriarch in 1879 after Audo's death.
In 1875, the monk Philip Abraham of the monastery of Notre Dame des Semences, who was born in Telkepe in 1848 and became a priest in 1873, was consecrated metropolitan for India by Joseph VI Audo, who was then challenging the authority of the Padroado jurisdiction in India. He was recalled from India in 1881 by Eliya XII ʿAbulyonan on instructions from the Vatican, and was transferred to the diocese of Gazarta in 1882, taking the name Mar Yaʿqob. He was among the many Chaldean clergy murdered in the Armenian massacres of 1915. He was the last metropolitan of Gazarta. The Assyrian population of the Gazarta district was greatly reduced in the First World War in the Assyrian genocide, and the diocese of Gazarta was not revived afterwards.
In 1867 the diocese of Gazarta contained 20 villages and had a population of 7,000 Assyrians, served by 10 qashe (priests). In 1896 the diocese had a population of 5,500 Assyrians, and contained 16 parishes or stations, 20 churches, and 14 qashe (priests), assisted by a Dominican mission and a mission of the Sisters of Preservation at Gazarta (Chabot). The largest villages in the diocese were Gazarta, Hoz and Mer, Harbol, Peshabur, Taqian, Girik Bedro, Wasta and Tel Qabin.
In 1913 the diocese included 17 villages, and had 17 qashe (priests) and 6,400 civilians (Tfinkdji).
The diocese was ruined in the First World War during the Assyrian genocide, and in 1928 there were only 1,600 Assyrians remaining in its former territory, without a qasha (priest) (Tisserant). In 1937 there were 2,250 Assyrians, with a qasha (priest) and a church (Kajo).
The following is a list of incumbents of the Chaldean Catholic diocese of Gazarta: [2]
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. In 2010, it had a membership of 490,371, of whom 310,235 (63.27%) lived in the Middle East.
Joseph VI Audo (1790–1878) was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1847 to 1878.
Mar Nicholas I Zaya was the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1839 to 1847. He succeeded Yohannan VIII Hormizd, the last of the Mosul patriarchs who traced their descent from Eliya VI (1558–1591), and his elevation ended four centuries of hereditary succession in the Eliya line. After Zayʿa's accession the Vatican attempted to reform abuses within the Chaldean Church, but its interference was strenuously resisted by several Chaldean bishops. As a result, Zayʿa's short reign was plagued by one crisis after another. In 1846, after the Vatican conspicuously failed to support him against his recalcitrant bishops, he resigned the patriarchate and retired to his native town of Khosrowa, where he died in 1855. He was succeeded by Joseph VI Audo, one of his most determined opponents.
Yohannan VIII Hormizd (1760–1838) was the last hereditary patriarch of the Eliya line of the Church of the East and the first patriarch of a united Chaldean Church. After the death of his uncle Eliya XI in 1778, he claimed the patriarchal throne in 1780 and made a Catholic profession of faith. In 1783, he was recognized by the Vatican as patriarchal administrator and archbishop of Mosul. His career as patriarchal administrator was controversial, and was marked by a series of conflicts with his own bishops and also with the Vatican. Suspended from his functions in 1812 and again in 1818, he was reinstated by the Vatican in 1828. In 1830, following the death of the Amid patriarchal administrator Augustine Hindi, he was recognised by the Vatican as patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and the Mosul and Amid patriarchates were united under his leadership. This event marked the birth of the since unbroken patriarchal line of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Yohannan Hormizd died in 1838 and his successor Nicholas I Zayʿa was chosen by the Vatican, ending the centuries-old practice of hereditary succession.
For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the district of Salmas in northwest Iran was an archdiocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church, now a part of the Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Urmyā.
The Metropolitanate of Shemsdin, created after the 1552 schism in the Church of the East, the predecessor to the Assyrian Church of the East, was the second most important ecclesiastical province of the Qudshanis patriarchate after the province of the patriarch himself. The metropolitans or matrans of Shemsdin traditionally took the name Hnanishoʿ and lived in the Shemsdin village of Mar Ishoʿin the sub-district of Rustaqa. There were around twelve metropolitans of Shemsdin between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, most of whom were chosen by hereditary succession. The last metropolitan of Shemsdin, Mar Yosip Khnanisho died in Iraq in 1977, and the office of mutran lapsed on his death.
Dioceses of the Church of the East after 1552 were dioceses of the Church of the East and its subsequent branches, both traditionalist and pro-Catholic.
Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Amadiya was a historical eparchy (diocese) of the Chaldean Catholic Church, until it was united with the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Zakho in 2013.
Diocese of Berwari was an East Syriac diocese of the Church of the East, existing between the 16th and 20th centuries and covering the region of Berwari.
Aqra, properly ʿAqra, was a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church founded in the mid-19th century. It was united with the Archeparchy of Mossul to create the Archeparchy of Mossul-Aqra on December 22, 2018.
Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Seert was a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church, centered in Seert. It existed during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The diocese was ruined during the First World War.
Mardin was a diocese of the Chaldean Church from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The diocese lapsed in 1941. Prior to this, it was a diocese of the Assyrian Church of the East, from which the Chaldean Catholic Church originated.
The Diocese of Amid (Diyarbakir) was a diocese or archdiocese of the Chaldean Church from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. From at least the 13th century the city of Amid had been part of the Diocese of Maiperqat of the Church of the East; following the schism of 1552 it became the seat of its own diocese in the Chaldean Church.
Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Zakho is a diocese of the Chaldean Church in the second half of the 19th century and for most of the 20th century. The diocese of Zakho was merged with the Chaldean diocese of ʿAmadiya in 1987. In December 2001, a new bishop was consecrated. In July 2013, Zakho was suppressed to the Diocese of Amadiyah.
The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Kirkuk is an archeparchy of the Chaldean Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. The archeparchy was created in the early years of the nineteenth century. Its present ordinary, Archbishop Yousif Thomas Mirkis, was consecrated in 2014.
The patriarch of the Church of the East is the patriarch, or leader and head bishop of the Church of the East. The position dates to the early centuries of Christianity within the Sassanid Empire, and the Church has been known by a variety of names, including the Church of the East, Nestorian Church, the Persian Church, the Sassanid Church, or East Syrian.
Mar Shemʿon VII Ishoʿyahb, born Īshōʿyahb bar Māmā, was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1539 to 1558, with residence in Rabban Hormizd Monastery.
The schism of 1552 was an important event in the history of the Church of the East. It divided the church into two factions, of which one entered into communion with Rome becoming part of the Catholic Church at this time and the other remained independent until the 19th century. Although the Eliya line, which emerged as a result of this schism, did eventually enter into communion with Rome, various Eastern Protestant sects with their origins in the Church of the East emerged as a result of this schism. The Shimon line whose entry into full communion with Rome caused this schism became independent again by the 17th century. The circumstances of the 1552 schism were controversial at the time and have been disputed ever since.
Metropolitanate of India was an East Syriac ecclesiastical province of the Church of the East, at least nominally, from the seventh to the sixteenth century. The Malabar region (Kerala) of India had long been home to a thriving Eastern Christian community, known as the Saint Thomas Christians. The community traces its origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Christian communities in India used the East Syriac Rite, the traditional liturgical rite of the Church of the East. They also adopted some aspects of Dyophysitism of Theodore of Mopsuestia, often inaccurately referred as Nestorianism, in accordance with theology of the Church of the East. It is unclear when the relation between Saint Thomas Christian and the Church of the East was established. Initially, they belonged to the metropolitan province of Fars, but were detached from that province in the 7th century, and again in the 8th, and given their own metropolitan bishop.