Ecclesiastical Chronicle, Volume 2

IGNATIUS, who is also MATTHAEUS. After Georgius died, MICHAËL DJARVE was elected by some bishops and the majority of the faithful, whom four bishops who had embraced the Catholic faith consecrated in the Zafaran monastery near Mardin. But one of them, Matthaeus, Bishop of Mosul, when he saw himself frustrated in his ambition for the patriarchate, returned to heresy and, constituted as patriarch by the heretics, obtained a diploma from the Turkish government, by which Michaël was sent into exile in Baghdad.

IGNATIUS BEHENAM held the patriarchal seat from the year 1811 with Matthaeus, who had taken him as his assistant.

IGNATIUS, or GEORGIUS IV, his successor, who was already holding the seat from the year 1827, died in 1836, after having long and harshly persecuted the Syrians who had converted to the faith.

ELIAS ANGHES imitated the cruelty of his predecessor toward the orthodox Syrians, until he died in 1847.

Meanwhile, the following presided over the orthodox as patriarchs:

MICHAËL DJARVE. The Syrians united to the Holy See, who had lacked a patriarch from 1706 to 1783, elected Djarve as patriarch in 1783, Bishop of Aleppo, who, by the order of the Roman Pontiff, chose the seat of Mardin, where he was consecrated by four bishops who had returned to the faith. Scarcely honored with the patriarchal dignity, he was driven into exile in Baghdad. Happily rescued from prison and death, the pious prelate retired to the place of Scharfeh in Lebanon, where he died in 1800.

MICHAËL DAHER, successor to the former, held the seat in Lebanon.

SIMEON HENDI, who was patriarch after Michaël, died in Lebanon around the year 1820.

IGNATIUS PETRUS DJARVE, Syrian Bishop of Jerusalem, was substituted for Simeon in the same year, with the approval of the Holy See, and for seven years had his domicile in the town of Scharfeh on Mount Lebanon. From there, in the year 1827, he went to Aleppo, into which city he brought his precious things, books, very ancient codices, and sacred ornaments. During the sedition of the year 1850, all these were partly seized by the Turks and partly destroyed by fire. The patriarch did not remain surviving this great calamity for long. He died at Aleppo in the year 1851. Under his patriarchate, many Jacobites, having abjured heresy, returned to the true faith. Among these, Antonius Samhiri of Mosul, Maphrian high-ranking ecclesiastical official of the Jacobites, became most noted for his doctrine, labors, and the persecutions he endured for the faith, not only in the East but also among our own people. He, therefore, along with his brother Hyza of Mosul, Bishop of Jerusalem, abjured the Jacobite heresy on April 17, 1827. Two months having passed, through his efforts, Jacobus Eliani, Bishop of Damascus, and Matthaeus Nakar, Bishop of Naba, returned to the true faith, who were later followed by Gregorius Zaitun, Bishop of Modiad. Gregorius Hyza was sent by the Holy See to Mosul as archbishop, while Samhiri obtained the flock of Mardin with the title of Archbishop Vicar of the patriarchal seat.