Flavianus Michael Malke

Bishop of the Diocese of Gazireh, Mar Michael Malke

Mar Flavianus Michael Malke ( Aramaic ܦܠܒܝܐܢܘܣ ܡܝܟܐܝܠ ܡܠܟܝ Flabyanus Mekael Malke ; * 1858 in Qal'at Mara ; † August 29, 1915 in Cizre ) was the Syrian Catholic Bishop of Gazarta and a martyr during the genocide of the Syrian Christians .

Life

Jacob Malke was born in Qal'at Mara, a town east of Mardin , into a Syriac Orthodox family from Charpert . In 1868 he joined the Saffron Monastery , where he studied Syriac , Turkish and Arabic in addition to studying theology. He was ordained a deacon in 1878 and made a library secretary and a teacher in the convent school.

Malke leaned on Catholicism and therefore joined the Syrian Catholic Charafe monastery school , where he spent four years. He was ordained a priest on May 13, 1883 in Aleppo by the Patriarch Ignatius George V. Shelhot and assigned to various places in the Tur Abdin . In the Diyarbakir massacre ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1895, his house was looted and burned down; the bloodbaths also resulted in the death of many members of his community, including his mother. In the following years he served as a priest in several burned down villages of Tur Abdin, where he helped with the reconstruction efforts. Because of his work, Malke was appointed choir bishop in 1897 and vice-bishop of Mardin and Gazarta. On January 19, 1913, he was consecrated bishop by Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani in Beirut , together with the future Patriarch Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni as successor to Julius Behnam Aqrawi .

In the summer of 1915 a series of massacres and bloodbaths took place in the rural region of Tur Abdin. Malke, who was in Azech at the time , returned to Gazarta after hearing of news of an impending genocide against the Christians there . Despite tips from local Muslim leaders, he refused to flee. He was arrested by the Ottoman authorities on August 28, 1915 - along with the city's Chaldean bishop, Philippe-Jacques Abraham . The next day they had the choice between the cruel torture death and the conversion to Islam . After they refused to convert, Jacques Abraham was shot dead and Michael Malke was beaten until he passed out. He was later hanged.

beatification

In 2010 the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate asked for the beatification of Michael Malke. He has been proclaimed Venerable Servant of God by the Holy See , which is the first step towards beatification.

On Sunday, September 30, 2012, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate sent a final report for the beatification of Mar Michael Malke to Rome . On August 8, 2015, Pope Francis confirmed the martyrdom of Malkes as the final prerequisite for beatification. The beatification took the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , Angelo Amato , on August 29, 2015 Harissa ago.

See also

• Addai Scher
• Shimun XXI.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bishop Michele Malche †. catholic-hierarchy.org, accessed March 29, 2012 . 
2. ↑ تعيين سيادة المطران مار يوليوس ميخائيل الجميل مدافعا في الفاتيكان في قضية تطويب خي قضاام تطويب خي الي الي بيخال نلوم. Bakhdida.net, accessed March 29, 2012 (Arabic). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} كرسي أبرشية ماردين. Archbishopric of Syrian Catholic Church in Aleppo, accessed March 29, 2012 (Arabic). 
4. ↑ افتتاح التحقيق في دعوى تطويب المطران الشهيد ميخائيل ملكي. Syriac Catholic Patriarchy, accessed April 21, 2012 (Arabic). 
5. ↑ 1915/1916/1917. Hagiography Circle, accessed April 21, 2012 (Arabic). 
6. ↑ الكنيسة السريانية الكاثوليكية تختتم التحقيق الأبرشي في دعوى تطويب المطران الشهميد مار فلابيخاوئي ميياوئي. Syriac Catholic Patriarchy, accessed February 11, 2013 (Arabic). 
7. ↑ Promulgazione di Decreto della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , August 8, 2015, accessed August 9, 2015 (Italian).