The Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Aleppo (also Halab in Arabic, or Beroa as in Antiquity) is the only

eparchy Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the ...

(Eastern Catholic diocese) of the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

(which uses the

Syro-Oriental Rite The East Syriac Rite or East Syrian Rite, also called the Edessan Rite, Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, Chaldean Rite, Nestorian Rite, Babylonian Rite or Syro-Oriental Rite, is an Eastern Christian liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturgy ...

, in Syriac or Aramaic languages) in Syria.

Territory and statistics

The eparchy extends its jurisdiction over the faithful of the Chaldean Catholic Church of Syria. It is directly subject to the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon (actually in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

), not part of any

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

episcopal see is the St. Joseph's Cathedral, in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria. The territory is divided into 14 parishes.

History

A colony of Chaldean Christians was certainly present in Aleppo in the early 16th century, most probably from the city of

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

in Upper

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

. In 1723 the Chaldean patriarch Joseph III obtained from the

Ottoman Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to: Governments and dynasties * Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924 * Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...

government a

firman A firman ( fa, , translit=farmân; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The word firman com ...

who recognized his jurisdiction over the Chaldean faithful of the city. However, the number of the Chaldean faithful remained always reduced; at the beginning of the twentieth century the community included only 250 people. In 1901, however,

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

authorized the institution of a patriarchal vicariate, directly dependent on the patriarch. The eparchy was erected on July 3, 1957 with the

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species '' Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, incl ...

Almost pastor

olla Quasi pastor, AAS 50 (1958), p. 249 An olla is a ceramic jar, often unglazed, used for cooking stews or soups, for the storage of water or dry foods, or for other purposes like the irrigation of olive trees. ''Ollas'' have short wide necks and wider bellies, resembling beanpots o ...

/ref> of Pope Pius XII, with which the pontiff suppressed the

Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Gazireh Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Dis ...

of the Chaldeans and established the new ecclesiastical circumscription.

Episcopal ordinaries

(all

Chaldean Rite The East Syriac Rite or East Syrian Rite, also called the Edessan Rite, Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, Chaldean Rite, Nestorian Rite, Babylonian Rite or Syro-Oriental Rite, is an Eastern Christian liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturg ...

) ;''Exempt Eparch (Bishop) of Syria'' * (vacant ? unavailable ?) ;''Exempt Eparchs (Bishops) of Aleppo'' * ''

Apostolic Administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

Gabriel Naamo (1938.09.30 – 1957.06.27), Titular Bishop of Batnæ (1938.09.30 – 1957.06.28), also Apostolic Administrator of Gazireh of the Chaldeans (Turkey) (1938.09.30 – 1957.06.27); later Eparch (Bishop) of

Beirut of the Chaldeans The Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Beirut is the sole eparchy (Eastern Catholic diocese) of the Chaldean Catholic Church (''sui iuris'', Syro-Oriental Rite in Syriac/Aramaic language) for all Lebanon. It is immediately dependent on the Chaldean Cat ...

(Lebanon) (1957.06.28 – 1964.02.12)'' * Bishop Paul Cheikho (1957.06.28 – 1958.12.13), previously Eparch of Aqrā of the Chaldeans (Iraq) (1947.02.22 – 1957.06.28); later Eparch of

Mossul of the Chaldeans The Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul ( la, Archieparchia Mausiliensis Chaldaeorum) is a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church, located in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Its followers are ethnic Chaldeans and speakers of Aramaic. The dioc ...

(Iraq) (1958.12.13 – 1960), then

Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans This is a list of the Chaldean Catholicoi-Patriarchs of Baghdad, formerly Babylon, the leaders of the Chaldean Catholic Church and one of the Patriarchs of the east of the Catholic Church starting from 1553 following the schism of 1552 which c ...

(Iraq) ( 958.12.131959.03.12 – death 1989.04.13), President of Synod of the Chaldean Church (1969 – 1989.04.13) and President of Assembly of the Catholic Bishops of Iraq (1976 – 1989.04.13) * Stéphane Bello (1959.10.23 – death 1989.11.26) * Antoine Audo,

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

(S.J.) (1992.01.18 – ...)

Sources

* * C. Karalevsky, v. Alep, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 112-113, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6561037d/f74.image

References

External links

GCatholic, with incumbent biography links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleppo, Chaldean Catholic Eparchy Chaldean Catholic dioceses Eastern Catholicism in Syria