Mar Shimun XVI Yohannan (also Shemon XVI Yohannan) was

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

of the Shem'on line ( Qodshanis) of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

, from 1780. In 1804, he became the sole Patriarch among traditionalist Christians of the

East Syriac 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 Liturgy of Ad ...

, because the rival Patriarch

Eliya XII Eliya XII ( / ''Elīyā'', d. 1804) was Patriarch of the Church of the East, from 1778 to 1804, with formal residence in Rabban Hormizd Monastery, near Alqosh, in modern Iraq. His birth name was Ishoyahb, and he was the elder son of priest Abraha ...

(1778-1804) of the ''Eliya line'' died without successor. Shimun XVI remained patriarch until his death in 1820.

Biography

Until 1804, there were two rival patriarchal lines among traditionalist Christians of the

, senior ''Eliya line'' in

Alqosh Alqosh (, , , alternatively spelled Alkosh, Alqoš, or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul. The inhabitants of Alqosh are Assyrian peopl ...

and junior ''Shemon line'' in

Qochanis Qudshanis (also: ''Kuçanis''Pishon/Uizhun ''one of the four rivers of Paradise; and the Patriarch will occasionally date his official letters from my cell on the River of the Garden of Eden. See also * List of Assyrian villages * Zagros Mountai ...

. The last patriarch of the senior line,

, died in 1804 and was buried in the ancient

Rabban Hormizd Monastery Rabban Hormizd Monastery () is an important convent to the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Chaldean Catholic Church, founded about 640 AD by the Church of the East, carved out in the mountains about 2 miles from Alqosh, Iraq, 28 miles north o ...

. His branch decided not to elect a new patriarch, thus ending that line, and eventually enabling the remaining patriarch Shimun XVI of the junior line to become the sole primate of the entire traditionalist community (modern

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an Eastern Christianity, Eastern Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian denomin ...

References

Sources

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External links

Mar Shimun Patriarchal Timeline

Official site of the Assyrian Church of the East
1820 deaths 18th-century bishops of the Church of the East Assyrians from the Ottoman Empire Year of birth missing Patriarchs of the Church of the East {{Bishop-stub