Yosip Khnanisho

Mar Yosip Khnanisho X. (* 1893 ; † July 3, 1977 in Baghdad ) was a metropolitan and patriarchal administrator of the autocephalous East Syrian "Church of the East" .

Khnanisho (Ḫnanišoˁ) was the episcopal name of the reigning Metropolitan (Matran) of Rustaqa and Shamezdin of the Noçiya tribe in the Hakkari region for generations . He worked in the village of Deira at the former monastery Mar Isho (Ḫnanišoˁ), whose name he bears. Ten metropolitans in a row came from the same family (Beth d'Matran). As the only remaining resident hierarch with the rank of archbishop , his duties of honor included the ordination of the Catholicos- Patriarch of Qujanis .

Mar Yosip Knanisho was the nephew and designated successor ( natar kursi ) of his uncle Mar Eskhaq (Isaak) Khnanisho IX. (* 1848, offic. 1884–1918). Ordained a priest by this in 1912 , Yosip represented his uncle in the war years 1914–1916 at the seat of the Patriarch in Qudschanis. There Mar Shimun XXI ordained him . on August 23, 1914 as bishop (last episcopal ordination in the cathedral at Qudschanis). After Shimun's violent death, Mar Yosip was his uncle's co-celebrant at the patriarchal consecration of Mar Shimun XXII. 1918 in Urmia (Iran). During the panic escape from there to Iraq in 1918, Mar Eskhaq died and was buried near Kermanshah . As his successor, his nephew Yosip received on December 2, 1918 in the British St. George's Church in Baghdad through Mar Polos Shimun XXII. († 1920) the ordination as Metropolitan of Rustaqa. In 1920 he carried out the ordination of Mar Shimun XXIII himself . , his underage nephew, to the Catholicos Patriarch of the "Church of the East".

The forced exile of Mar Shimun XXIII. in Europe and later in the USA made Mar Khnanisho X. from 1933 the highest-ranking representative and de facto head of his church in Iraq and throughout the Orient, especially since the three remaining members of the Assyrian episcopate had a distant relationship with Shimun XXIII. used. After leaving the refugee camp, he settled with his compatriots from Shamezdin in northern Iraq and resided in the village of Harir until 1961. He then worked in the state capital Baghdad. He ensured the continued existence of two traditional episcopal houses through the episcopal ordination of Mar Isho Sargis of Jilu (May 14, 1951, † December 19, 1966), Mar Andreos Yawallaha for Barwar (July 14, 1957, † June 17, 1973) and des adolescent Mar Yosip Sargis from Jilu (March 2, 1968; officiating in Baghdad), each as successor to their deceased uncles. For Urmiah and Iran he appointed Mar Youkhanan Philipose, a bishop on April 19, 1953 (who, however, was denied entry) and for him, after several years of vacancy, on February 11, 1962, a successor with Mar Dinkha .

In the uneasy situation after the surprising marriage of Mar Shimun XXIII. († 1975) Mar Yosip was appointed patriarchal administrator in 1973. One of his students and relatives, Mar Dinkha from Tehran, took office in 1976 as the Catholicos-Patriarch of the autocephalous "Church of the East", who was elected for the first time in centuries.

Mar Yosip was a bishop and metropolitan for 63 years. Highly respected as a minister and person during his lifetime, today he is venerated as a saint by many Christian Assyrians . He is buried in the Mart Maryam Church in Baghdad. His liturgical feast day is celebrated annually on the second Sunday in July.

literature

• Jean-Maurice Fiey: Pour un Oriens Christianus Novus. Repertoire des diocèses syriaques orientaux et occidentaux. Steiner, Stuttgart 1993, 87f. 126. ISBN 3-515-05718-8
• JF Coakley: The Church of the East since 1914 . In: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of Manchester 78, 3 (1996) 179-198.
• Theodore d'Mar Shimun: The History of the Patriarchal Succession of the d'Mar Shimun Family . Modesto 2008. ISBN 978-1-4363-1219-6 .