Patriarch Mar Elias III (1917-1932)
Athanasios Aphram Barsoum (1932-2016) Archbishop of Beirut, 1965-2008
He was born in Mardin in 1867 and was called Nasri at his baptism. He studied in the schools of the region and prized the jewelry industry. As a boy, he contracted a troublesome skin disease from which he was cured only after prayers and vows by his faithful parents. His parents vowed that if he was cured, they would offer him to the Lord. He was indeed cured and joined the Za‘afaran Monastery near his ancient town. In 1889, he took the name Elias and was ordained as a priest in 1892, and was appointed as the head of the St. Kuriakose Monastery in Al-Bashiriya, and then for a year as the head of the Za‘afaran Monastery. Those years of hardship and hunger showed the extent of his zeal and care for the needy, especially the orphans, numbering over a hundred, who had taken refuge in the Za‘afaran Monastery during and after the massacres of 1895. In accordance with the wishes of Patriarch ‘Abdul-Masih II, this historic monastery, the seat of the Antiochian Apostolic See for more than seven centuries became a refuge like a Noah’s Ark, receiving the afflicted, the persecuted, and the hunted by the oppressors, giving them a life of peace and tranquility and providing them with all means of decent living. The monastery was a refuge especially for the villages near it, which were inhabited by the unfortunate Syriacs who were repeatedly killed, looted, and displaced. In 1899, the See sent him as an Apostolic Visitor to Midyat, which in those days was full of Syriacs, with churches and shrines. The Catholic Church and other sects were trying to break into its castle, so this zealous father confronted them and defended the right of Orthodoxy there and reconciled the disputants and empty-hearted leaders.
He then moved to the vicariate in Diyarbakir, where he studied the Turkish language, which he mastered. He won the admiration of those who speak Turkish by birth since he was born in a city where the native language is Arabic. He defended the oppressed and helped those in need, and in this period, he rebuilt part of the destroyed church of Miaferqat, and the believers prayed in it. In 1908, the Diyarbakir diocese elected him to become its bishop, and it submitted an official request to Patriarch ‘Abdullah, who ordained Rabban Elias Shaker as bishop on March 3, 1908 under the name of Mar Iwannis. The hand staff he carried at the time, which is made of black ebony wood with an elegant silver head, was handed to me when I visited Turkey in 1971; a verse of poetry by Ibn al-‘Ibri was engraved under the head, saying: ܚܘܒܟ ܢܓܕܢܝ ܠܡܟܗܢܘ ܠܟ ܥܙܝܙܐ (Your love drew me to serve you as a priest, O mighty one, etc.) I handed it over to the venerable Patriarchate along with some old pamphlets, asking brother bishops in one of the Synods to do the same, so that the Patriarchate can collect old objects belonging to the Church to become the seed for a museum in the future.
In 1911, he was sent to Tur ‘Abdin as a Patriarchal delegate to reform its conditions. He inspected its churches and established seven primary schools in its villages. In March 1912, he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Mosul. Upon the death of Patriarch ‘Abdullah in 1915, he was chosen as qā’im-maqām (Locum tenens), so he moved to Za‘afaran Monastery. World War I was in full swing, and the prelates of the church called for the election of Patriarch on Feb 12, 1917. They elected him Patriarch and consecrated him in a great ceremony under the name of Elias III. Rabban Aphram Estephan Barsoum participated in the election, representing the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Holy Land; he was promoted by the new Patriarch to the holy episcopate and consecrated by him on May 20, 1918, with the name Severios. In the following year, Bishop Aphram accompanied the Patriarch on some of his visits, especially to Istanbul, where the new Patriarch received the firman (decree) of Sultan Wahid al-Din, the last Sultan of the Ottoman dynasty, and the first-class glorious medal. He sent Bishop Barsoum to the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919 where he submitted an accurate and thoughtful written memorandum about the loss of life and property suffered by the Syriac Orthodox community. The memorandum showed that one third of the Syriac Orthodox community was exterminated (approximately 136,000) in addition to the old churches and monasteries that were demolished etc. The great leaders of Europe pretended to listen, but in secret they were sharing the legacy of the Ottoman Empire (the sick man, as they called it). What Bishop Barsoum incurred was the enmity of the Turks, especially leaders such as Ismet Anonu, who succeeded Ataturk as president of the Republic of Turkey; he threatened Bishop Barsoum at the end of the conference and forbade him from entering Turkey. Bishop Aphram Barsoum never set foot on Turkish soil since then. As for the Patriarch, starting in 1919, he visited Diyarbakir, Urfa, Aleppo, Hama, Damascus, Zahle and Beirut and received recommendations to preserve the Christians of Mesopotamia. When the Sultanate was abolished and the Republic was proclaimed, he sent a congratulatory telegram to Mustafa Kemal, who was elected as the first president of the Turkish Republic.
He then traveled to Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, Ankara, and met Ataturk personally at the railway station. He returned to Aleppo, where in 1923 he ordained Bishops Yuhanna ‘Abachi and named him Qlimis for the parish of Mar Matta Monastery and Monk Gabriel Anto for St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem. He was received at Jerusalem with unprecedented warmth due to the love that people had for him. He traveled to Mardin, passing through Urfa and Diyarbakir, where he was received with unparalleled warmth due to the love that people of all sects and confessions had for him, and the believers found comfort in his person. In 1923, Metropolitan Dionysius Geevarghese of India, the proponent of separation from Antioch, came to Za‘afaran Monastery with the priests Abraham and Zakaria. The Patriarch received them with his usual kindness and his big heart. He consecrated the monks John Kandour and Elias Qoro as bishops, the former under the name Iwannis and the latter under the name Yulios, and sent the latter to Malabar as a Patriarchal Delegate with the Indian bishop and his two priests. The Indian bishop was given an encyclical: if he repented and walked according to the laws of the Church, Mar Yulios would inform His Holiness to absolve him or else not. Patriarch Elias came to Aleppo, where he consecrated its new church named after Mar Aphram, which was built by the worthy Mr. Salim Azar in the Sulaymaniyah neighborhood on Sunday, December 7. He was assisted by the Archbishop of the diocese, Mar Severios Aphram Barsoum. He ordained a priest for this church, named Elias Chilazi. In this month, he also consecrated St. George’s Church in Zahle – Midan, and then went down to Jerusalem, where he laid the foundation stone for Mar Aphram Church in Bethlehem. He reissued the magazine “Wisdom”, supported its school, and appointed new directors, Mr. Murad Fuad Jakki and his brother Mikhail. He appointed Rabban Yuhanon Dolabani to teach students the subject of religion and the Syriac language. In 1927, he went to northern Iraq, where he built several cells in the famous Mar Matta Monastery. Some of those who saw him or participated in the construction process told me that he used to help the workers with his hand; one day they tried to remove a large rock from the road (called Tabki) at the mountain monastery, but they were unable to do so. After drawing the sign of the Holy Cross on it, he advanced from the large rock, and after signing the cross on it, he supported his back to another rock opposite the large rock and pushed it with his right foot. It slowly moved from its place and then descended into the valley amid shouts of joy and prayers for His Holiness’s longevity.
Patriarch Elias was a handsome and elegant-looking man. He was seen many times sitting cross-legged in the metropolitan hall and tailoring his black or colored liturgical vestments by hand. He had a long, bushy, majestic beard and a look of natural intelligence, and people of all denominations loved him for his kindness, especially when he rode his horse in Turkey and its villages. People of all denominations loved him for his kindness, especially when he rode his horse in Turkey and its villages in his elegant costume, his sweet smile and his many medals. He used to smoke, but he quit smoking on the advice of doctors after suffering from heart disease. He consecrated Holy Myron six times, three times at St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem, twice at Za‘afaran Monastery, and once at the Church of the Virgin in Mosul.
In the fall of 1930, Patriarch Elias convened a synod at the Monastery of Mar Matta, which was attended by most of the Church fathers and some lay delegates from the Syriac dioceses. This was a pioneering step that showed that His Holiness had the foresight to realize that the laity also has a role in the Church. In this council, several important decisions were taken. He also authorized the use of music during religious services and the eating of fish during fasting. While he was in Iraq, the English High Commissioner visited him one day and conveyed to him an invitation from the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, to visit India and try to solve its problems. The Turks had stripped him of his Turkish citizenship, so the English provided him with a passport.
This invitation was actually an Indian trap, by which their cunning people wanted to lure the good Patriarch to the hornets’ nest, through Lord Irwin, in order to negotiate with him in their home country from a position of power. They expected that he would either agree to their falsehood and accept what the deposed Patriarch ‘Abdul-Masih had done and, if he failed to, annoy him openly and shamelessly. It turned out that most of the prelates, led by Metropolitan Aphram Barsoum and the parishioners, especially in Mosul, warmly pleaded with him not to accept this ominous invitation, especially since he suffered from heart disease, but in the end he prepared for this trip for the simple reason that sacrifice is an inherent quality of our great Fathers, especially those who went to India and lay in its soil. Patriarch Elias was one of those great patriarchs.
Feb 6, 1931 was a sad day in Mosul, when the priests and deacons sang sad farewell hymns in Syriac and wept bitterly as if they felt they would never see their good shepherd again. They sung:
ܢܦܩ ܝܘܢܢ ܡܢ ܓܘ ܢܝܢܘܐ ܘܟܪܝܬ ܠܗ܆ ܢܦܩܘ ܢܝܢܘ̈ܝܐ ܡܠܘܝܢ ܠܗ ܘܗܟܢ ܐܡܪܝܢ. ܙܠ ܒܫܪܪܐ ܟܪܘܙܐ ܕܫܪܪܐ ܕܐܦܢܝܬܢ ܡܢ ܛܥܝܘܬܐ ܠܐܘܪܚܐ ܕܚܝ̈ܐ.
(Jonah left Nineveh in sorrow, and the people of Nineveh went out to bid him farewell: “Go in peace, O minister of truth, for you have brought us back from the shadows to the path of life.”)
The people bidding farewell stood with their eyes fixed on the cars heading to Baghdad until they lost sight of him and returned to Mosul in tears. In Baghdad, the Patriarch visited King Faisal I of Iraq, who received him with great warmth, as did Lord Irwin in Delhi, and most of the high officials, including the Maharajas of Cochin and Travancore. All gave him high honors, as was the custom of those days. Indian Syriacs in those days were fiercely loyal to the Patriarch of Antioch and regarded him as their supreme religious authority, just as the Pope is to Catholics. This loyalty prevailed even in the days of our decline in recent centuries due to persecutions and injustices. The Indians were educated, progressing and increasing in number. A few Indians embraced the idea of separation because they are numerous in clergy and laity; this was especially true of those who visited our homes and witnessed the reality of our conditions and our emaciation, as we were few in number and our monasteries and institutes were empty and our clergy almost illiterate. The Indians, on the contrary, are increasing in number, their areas of presence are safe and quiet. By nature, they love knowledge, and at one time the percentage of educated Syriacs was the highest in India, as reported in 1964 by Dr. Zakir Hussein, Vice President of the Republic. They learned how to cultivate tea, coffee, cardamom and rubber, all of which are highly profitable for their owners. Our dioceses, especially the northern ones, were loyal to the Antiochian Patriarch during the visit of Patriarch Elias. One day, while the Patriarch was meeting with Bishops Qoro, ‘Abachi, and Paulos, and the monks Kuriakose Tannourji and Yeshu‘ Samuel at the monastery in Aluva in the Angamali diocese, someone came to tell the Patriarch that the excommunicated Metropolitan Geevarghese the Indian had arrived. Patriarch ‘Abdullah had excommunicated him because of his schismatic ideas despite the will of the majority of Indians, and he entered the hall trembling and chanting ܡܪܢ ܡܪܢ ܡܪܢ ܫܒܘܩ ܠܝ ܣܟܠܘܬܝ (Moran, Moran, Moran, forgive me for my ignorance). The Patriarch was surprised to see him and the other people in the hall. As soon as he approached the Patriarch, he knelt in front of him while repeating this phrase. The Patriarch extended his hands to him, lifted him up and hugged him, saying, “I have released you from your excommunication.”
He asked everyone in the hall to do the same and embrace him. In fact, it was not as the Patriarch’s side imagined, because what the malicious Geevarghese had in mind was different from what the good Patriarch Elias had thought. The days proved this, as Geevarghese began to monitor the Patriarch’s movements in his visits to the dioceses and sent troublemakers to the churches he was visiting in order to mar the purposes and objectives of the visit, by surrounding the church and shouting “Samathanem”, meaning “(We want) peace”. Only God knew who was for real peace and who was against it, and what the concept of peace was for Geevarghese Vattashery, and what it was for the good-hearted Patriarch. The peace of Vattasherry was for the Patriarch to accept what the deposed Patriarch ‘Abdul-Masih II had done, namely, conferring the rank of Maphrian, similar to that of the Patriarchate, as a prelude to declaring separation from the Patriarchate and thus dispensing with it permanently, against the opinion of the vast majority of Indians. The Patriarch wished to reject everything done by the deposed Patriarch ‘Abdul-Masih and consider everything he did as invalid, and legitimize and reform those actions by re-ordaining them. Most Indians were with the Patriarch and what he represented in terms of legitimacy and apostolic hierarchy. Everyone on this side, which constitutes the majority, were saying: “We cannot leave Antioch, which made us members of an apostolic church that gave us salvation.” Therefore, we noticed that in every attempt to make the Patriarch’s side belong to the other side, even in a false attempt to unify the Church, they rejected it because it was against their conviction. When they found the way in front of them blocked, some of them adhered to Catholicism saying: “This is at least an apostolic church.” As the years passed, the separatists’ side strengthened for nationalistic reasons and the Indians’ tendency to secede, considering their relationship with Antioch as a kind of colonization. The Indian state was implicitly with the separatists and inclined towards them, and ruled in most cases in their favor.
In those days, it was customary for the Patriarch and even the Metropolitan to have a qawas or yawar (bodyguard), usually chosen from strong men with a large body and curly mustaches, who wore special clothes decorated with reeds from the shirt to the pants, wore a fez, carried a sword and a lash, and walked in front of the Patriarch or the Metropolitan in official ceremonies. However, after a few weeks, the qawas contracted a disease (Pityriasis Rosea), which is a kind of annoying Indian itch that deprives the sufferer of the pleasure of sleep. It does not affect all those who come to India, as I, for example, lived in India for more than three years and did not suffer from it, praise be to God.
Fortunately, in those days, a Turoyo person named Gabriel Sauma was living in Malabar. He had come to India ten years before the Patriarch’s arrival and married a Syriac Indian woman and had nine children with her. He had all the characteristics of a qawas, so he replaced the old qawas and distinguished himself from him because he spoke the local language, i.e., Malayalam. One day, while Patriarch Elias was in the Kuruppumpady Church, the followers of Vattashery filled the church before the Patriarch came, and upon his arrival, they shouted “Samathanem”; the Patriarch and his entourage quietly walked to the altar, turned around and said to the screamers: ܠܐ ܕܚܠܝܢܢ ܡܢ ܒܝܫܐ ܡܛܠ ܕܡܪܝܐ ܥܡܢ ܗ̱ܘ. ܙܝܢܗ ܕܡܫܝܚܐ ܥܡܢ ܘܒܗ ܟܠܢ ܡܫܬܒܗܪܝܢܢ.(We are not afraid of the evil one because the Lord is with us. The weapon of Christ is with us and we are all proud of it.)
Realizing that they would not let him deliver his sermon, he left the church with his entourage. The qawas (Gabriel) observed one of the troublemakers approaching the Patriarch and stretching out his leg to trip over the Patriarch; Gabriel rushed towards him and put his head under his armpit and choked him, almost suffocating him. He heard the Patriarch address him saying: “Let him go.”. The Indian fell to the ground, became a disgrace, and the others were frightened. The troublemakers would not hesitate to resort to such trivial and unseemly methods attempting to humiliate this great figure. Patriarch Elias continued to visit churches, deliver sermons and celebrate masses in order to benefit the simple believers, who were the majority in those days, until on Saturday, February 13, 1932, while he was walking in the courtyard of Mar Stephanos Church in the village of Omallur in the south, he said to those who were with him, “I am dizzy.” They brought him to his bed and laid him on it. His secretary, Zakaria Shaker, quickly took a small box containing ammonia that the doctors had recommended him to inhale in such cases. In the past he used to wake up, but this time he did not respond to the ammonia. The entourage summoned doctors nearby, who reported after examining him carefully that he had passed away. He was the first patriarch to be buried in that distant country, at the age of 65. A venerable shrine was erected over his tomb, which turned into a shrine, a magnificent church, and a small monastery where I stayed for more than three years. Metropolitans ‘Abachi and Qoro immediately telegraphed to Metropolitan Aphram Barsoum, then Metropolitan of Syria and Lebanon, and asked him to inform the Syriac world of this great loss. They followed the telegram with a lengthy letter in Garshuni in which they wrote in detail about the death incident and how the funeral ceremony took place, attended by all the bishops, clergy and the faithful Indian people.
The following is a sample of Patriarch Elias III’s writings, an encyclical of the Synod of Mar Matta Monastery held in the fall of 1930.
ܒܫܡ ܐܝܬܝܐ ܡܬܘܡܝܐ . ܐܠܨܝ ܐܝܬܘܬܐ ܕܟܠ ܐܚܝܕ܆
ܐܝܓܢܐܛܝܘܣ ܕܟܘܪܣܝܐ ܫܠܝܚܝܐ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ܆
ܕܗܘ ܐܠܝܐܣ ܬܠܝܬܝܐ ܡ
Apostolic blessing and peace in the Lord Jesus, to our beloved brothers, the Venerable Metropolitans, our sons, the vicars of the dioceses, our beloved priests, monks, priests and deacons, dignitaries and literati, with all the dear members of our Syriac Orthodox people, under the jurisdiction of our Holy Antiochian Apostolic See, may the Lord God grant you His abundant blessings.
May the Lord God protect you with His abundant blessings, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs and saints, Amen.
Dearly beloved in Christ: The authority that the Lord has given us to build (2 Cor. 13:10), has called us, together with some of our dear bishops, to convene an administrative synod, to consider the change and neglect that has occurred in some of the laws of our Holy Church, to settle its needs, and to establish regulations that guarantee the reform of what is lacking in our confessional conditions, as well as the reform of what is in need of reform. Since the difficult conditions and circumstances of the time prevented us from holding this meeting in the past for a long time, and we saw that our need increases with the passage of days, we ordered to hold the assembly in the Monastery of Mar Matta in Mosul. Our venerable brothers gathered with us: Mar Athanasios Toma Qassir, Metropolitan of Aleppo and its environs, Mar Severios Aphram Barsoum, Metropolitan of Syria and Lebanon, Mar Qlimis Yuhanna ‘Abachi, Metropolitan of the former Diocese of Mar Matta Monastery, and our son, Chorbishop Sulayman, Vicar of the said diocese. The rest of the bishops didn’t attend for various reasons, and some of our sons, priests, dignitaries and literary figures representing the dioceses also came with us upon our invitation to present the needs of their countries and participate in administrative matters only. Since the needs and issues of the Church were many, the Council was limited to sixteen sessions in which it made forty-one administrative decisions, added laws to the monastic canons and enacted a law for the local councils, postponing the consideration of the general church law and the completion of the remaining work to other councils that include all the brother bishops in all our Syriac dioceses, with God’s help, at the earliest appropriate time. In the following pages, we publish a summary of the decisions that the people should be aware of, urging the superiors and subordinates in this place, each according to his rank, ability and function, to implement these decisions with full obedience; may God Almighty enable us to serve His Church and its building, and may His grace be with you always, Amen.
(Issued at our Patriarchate in Mosul on November 11 and 24, 1930)
Translated from Barsoum, Athanasios Aphram (Archbishop), Baṭārikat as-suryān fil qarnayn at-tāse‘ ‘ašar wal-‘išrīn [The Patriarchs of Syriacs in the 19th and 20th centuries], Beyrouth, 20062 (20011), p. 119-139 by Severios Roger Akhrass.