Yohannan VIII Hormizd (often referred to by European missionaries as John Hormez or Hanna 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 was chosen by the Vatican, ending the centuries-old practice of hereditary succession.
Sources Yohannan Hormizd's career, first as patriarchal administrator and finally as patriarch, was dogged by disputes. Most of the surviving contemporary accounts of his patriarchate are partisan, and must be used with care.
Yohannan Hormizd himself wrote a polemical autobiography in Syriac, a fragment of which (breaking off in 1795) was translated into English by the Anglican missionary George Percy Badger and reproduced in his classic 1852 study of the Church of the East, The Nestorians and Their Rituals.Badger, Nestorians, i. 150–60 His opponents responded with an equally intemperate history of the monastery of Rabban Hormizd under the headship of Gabriel Dambo of Mardin (1775–1832), which was published in a French translation by M. Brière in 1910 and 1911.Brière, 'Histoire du couvent de Rabban Hormizd', ROC, 15 (1910) and 16 (1911) Both texts provide spirited accounts of the intrigues that followed Yohannan's election as patriarch in 1780. Neither can be trusted on matters of interpretation, but if read judiciously they shed valuable light on the politics of the Chaldean Church in the late eighteenth- and early-nineteenth centuries and provide a wealth of factual detail omitted in many accounts of this period.
The partisan spirit of the contemporary accounts was reflected in the texts of several later Chaldean authors, notably Giamil and Tfinkdji. Stephane Bello, writing in 1939 with access to the Vatican archives, was the first scholar to write a dispassionate account of Yohannan Hormizd's career. He has been followed more recently by Habbi. Much of the recent scholarship on Yohannan Hormizd is in French or German, but convenient English summaries of his career were made by David Wilmshurst in 2000 and by Christoph Baumer in 2006.Wilmshurst, EOCE, 28–32; Baumer, Church of the East, 250–1 In 2003 Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar Winkler devoted three paragraphs to Yohannan Hormizd.Baum and Winkler, Church of the East, 121–2
Background By 1760 the Church of the East had become divided into three patriarchates: The largest and oldest Patriarchal See was based at the Rabban Hormizd monastery of Alqosh, near Mosul. It spread from Aqrah up to Seert and Nisibis, covering the South rich plain of Mosul (it is known also as Eliya line). Since the 15th century, its Patriarchs belonged to the Bar Mama (or Abuna) family and they were appointed through a strict hereditary system: the old patriarch chose one of his nephews (or sometimes his young brother), and consecrated him as metropolitan bishop with right of succession. The nephew was known as natar kursi (designated successor). In 1760 the patriarch of this See was Eliya XI (1722-1778), the uncle of Yohannan Hormizd. In 1681, the patriarchal See of Amid became independent and made a formal union with Rome (it is also known as the Josephite line). This See included a few towns such as Amid and Mardin in the North-West Mountains, which are now in Turkey. In 1760 the patriarch was Joseph IV Lazar Hindi, a relative of Augustine Hindi. The patriarchate struggled with financial difficulties due to the tax burden imposed by the Turkish authorities. The third patriarchal See was located in Qochanis and extended into the North East Mountains (also known as the Shimun line). This patriarchal line began in 1553 when Yohannan Sulaqa was consecrated bishop by the Pope, but soon became independent of Rome and still survives in the denomination today known as Assyrian Church of the East
Early life
According to his autobiography, Yohannan Hormizd was born in 1760 in Alqosh to an Assyrian family. His father, the deacon Hanna (Yohannan), was the brother of the Mosul patriarch Eliya XI Denha (1722–1778).Badger, Nestorians, i. 150
The Vatican opened a correspondence with both the Mosul and Qochanis patriarchs in 1770. At this period hereditary succession (normally from uncle to nephew as the patriarchs themselves remained celibate) was in force in both patriarchates. Eliya XI had consecrated his nephew a metropolitan in 1745 and had also bestowed upon him the traditional title natar kursya ('guardian of the throne'), thereby designating him his presumptive successor. Eliya XI and his nephew both made Catholic professions of faith in 1771 in response to this overture from the Vatican, and Pope Clement XIV wrote to Eliya on 12 December 1772 to commend his zeal and to urge him to bring over his people to Catholicism. Earlier in the same year, however, Eliya had deposed from his metropolitan rank, apparently alarmed by his ambition, and ordained the twelve-year-old Yohannan Hormizd, another nephew, as a deacon. Four years later, on 22 May 1776, Yohannan was consecrated a metropolitan by Eliya XI and named natar kursya in his turn. If his uncle had lived a few years longer, Yohannan's succession would probably have been assured, but the patriarch was among the victims of a plague which swept through the Mosul district in 1778, and died in the village of Alqosh on 29 April 1778.Badger, Nestorians, i. 150–1
Irregular patriarchal succession, 1780–83 On the following day his nephews and Yohannan both made Catholic professions of faith and were reconciled. Despite the late patriarch's preference the Latin missionaries supported , who shortly afterwards succeeded his uncle as patriarch, taking the name Eliya XII (1778-1804), without open opposition from the young Yohannan. In May 1779, as soon as he had obtained his firman of office from the Ottoman civil authorities, abandoned his Catholic profession of faith. The notables of Mosul, with the support of the Latin missionaries, deposed him and unanimously chose of Amid, the Chaldean metropolitan of Mardin (1758–88), as patriarch in his place. however declined to accept the honour, and 's opponents were obliged to turn instead to the young Yohannan Hormizd, who had demonstrated his zeal for the Catholic cause since 's volte face by converting the Nestorians of the large Erbil villages of , Armuta and Shaqlawa to Catholicism and encouraging them to withdraw their loyalty from his cousin. Yohannan was elected patriarch in 1780, and his supporters bribed the governor of Mosul to use his influence to obtain a firman from Constantinople, granting him authority over both the Chaldean Christians and the Nestorians. Yohannan then sent a profession of faith and a letter of submission to the Vatican.Badger, Nestorians, i. 152
The Vatican was placed in a dilemma by this turn of events. If Yohannan's profession of faith was genuine, he might be the Catholic patriarch of Babylon the Vatican had long been hoping for, and his confirmation would be rapidly followed by the adoption of Catholicism by all the villages of the Mosul patriarchate. On the other hand, to confirm Yohannan's election would be to condone the distasteful practice of hereditary succession. There was also the possibility that Yohannan's submission was no more sincere than 's had been two years earlier. The Vatican's initial response was therefore to inform Raphael Terconuski, the superior of the Catholic mission at Mosul, that Yohannan Hormizd's profession of faith appeared to be satisfactory, but that his election was to be considered null. On 18 February 1783, having considered further, the Sacred Congregation decided to appoint Yohannan archbishop of Mosul and administrator of the patriarchate of Babylon, granting him all the necessary powers to that end except the title and the insignia of the patriarch.Bello, Congrégation de S. Hormisdas, 11–14
Patriarchal administrator and archbishop of Mosul, 1783–1830
Honeymoon period, 1783–1801 For the next eight years Yohannan Hormizd seemed to justify the hopes placed in him. He lived on amicable terms with the Catholic missionaries and devoted his energies to the conversion to Catholicism of the villages under his authority. In May 1790, on the advice of the missionaries, he consecrated his nephew metropolitan, and in August of the same year sent him to the Zibar district, where he converted the Nestorian villages of Arena and Barzane.Badger, Nestorians, i. 155 The following year he sent to Mengesh in the Sapna district, where he was equally successful. The high point of this honeymoon period came in February 1791, when the Vatican appointed him patriarchal administrator of the Amid patriarchate, recalling to Rome to leave him a free hand. This appointment led to strenuous protests from , his vicar-general and the clergy of Amid, and on 3 February 1793 Yohannan Hormizd's appointment was rescinded.
At about the same time the Mosul missionaries began to report disquieting rumours about his performance of his duties. He was said, among other things, to have released a monk from his vows for a payment of 73 piastres, to have used liturgical books full of errors, to have visited families without a companion, and to have feasted in the house of a newly-wed couple. Although each of these incidents was relatively minor in itself, and could equally have been explained by mere imprudence rather than active corruption, their frequency was disturbing. For his part, Yohannan accused the missionaries of arrogance and mischief-making, and on his request the apostolic vicar of Baghdad, Fulgence de Sainte Marie, was sent to Mosul as apostolic vicar in 1796 to report on the situation.Bello, Congrégation de S. Hormisdas, 12–13
While his relations with the Vatican were cooling, Yohannan Hormizd also had to deal with the opposition of his cousin , who continued to assert that he was the rightful patriarch. After Yohannan's irregular election in 1780 withdrew to , whose governor Isma'il gave him 'the Nestorian dioceses of the mountain' to govern. He made another Catholic profession of faith on 7 April 1783 in an attempt to regain the sympathies of the missionaries, and to preserve the patriarchate within his family consecrated his nephew metropolitan in 1784. Several years of bitter faction-fighting followed, in which the civil authorities in Baghdad held the balance between Muhammad, governor of Mosul, who supported Yohannan Hormizd, and Isma'il, governor of , who sheltered and his followers. In 1788 Yohannan's nephew was arrested on a visit to the village of Bir Sivi in the Zakho district on Isma'il's orders, and was only released by the joint efforts of the governor of Mosul and Sulaiman, governor of Baghdad.Badger, Nestorians, i. 153 In 1792 Yohannan and his two brothers went to on business, and were arrested, beaten and imprisoned for three and a half months by the Turkish authorities. Again, the governor of Baghdad intervened to secure their release.Badger, Nestorians, i. 156
First clash with the Vatican, 1802