{"id":11285,"date":"2015-08-11T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniverary-of-his-martyrdom-47196\/"},"modified":"2015-08-11T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T09:04:00","slug":"this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/","title":{"rendered":"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Michael_Malke.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk\u00e9, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk\u00e9 will be beatified Aug. 29 \u2013 the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom \u2013 during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cIn these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling dimension,\u201d read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cBlessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tMalk\u00e9 was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.)<\/p>\n<p>\tAfter his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home.<\/p>\n<p>\tOttoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk\u00e9's church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered \u2013 including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians.<\/p>\n<p>\tHe was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre \u2013 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir).<\/p>\n<p>\tA second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide \u2013 the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians \u2013 is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for 'sword'.<\/p>\n<p>\tSome 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide.<\/p>\n<p>\tDuring the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk\u00e9 was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people he returned.<\/p>\n<p>\tAccording to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, \u201cEven my blood I will shed for my sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tTogether with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months.<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk\u00e9 refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred.<\/p>\n<p>\tHe was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh \u2013 after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk\u00e9\u2019s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop\u2019s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe bishop, he said, \u201cplayed a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk\u00e9 lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk\u00e9 was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese.<\/p>\n<p>\tOne of the bishop\u2019s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, \u201cI will defend my faith to the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tExactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk\u00e9\u2019s serves as a prophetic witness because \u201cwe Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,\u201d the priest said. \u201cThe image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\u201cI personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today \u2026 we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs \u2026 we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\tVoicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power \u201cso that they make peace!\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=mRd_W3KNuLU:PJKzmjzzfOI:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/mRd_W3KNuLU\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Michael_Malke.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire&#8217;s genocide against its Christian minorities.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification.<\/p>\n<p>\t&ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today&#8217;s trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch.<\/p>\n<p>\t&ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\tMalk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.)<\/p>\n<p>\tAfter his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home.<\/p>\n<p>\tOttoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;&#8217;s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians.<\/p>\n<p>\tHe was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir).<\/p>\n<p>\tA second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for &#8216;sword&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>\tSome 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide.<\/p>\n<p>\tDuring the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh&#8217;s people he returned.<\/p>\n<p>\tAccording to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\tTogether with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months.<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred.<\/p>\n<p>\tHe was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today.<\/p>\n<p>\tThe bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\tBishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese.<\/p>\n<p>\tOne of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\tExactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\t&ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\tVoicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=mRd_W3KNuLU:PJKzmjzzfOI:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/mRd_W3KNuLU\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire&#039;s genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today&#039;s trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;&#039;s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for &#039;sword&#039;. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh&#039;s people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire&#039;s genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today&#039;s trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;&#039;s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for &#039;sword&#039;. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh&#039;s people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Michael_Malke.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/\",\"name\":\"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;'s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for 'sword'. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom","description":"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;'s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for 'sword'. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom","og_description":"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;'s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for 'sword'. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Michael_Malke.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/","name":"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-11T09:04:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Diyarbakir, Turkey, Aug 11, 2015 \/ 03:04 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- On Saturday Pope Francis approved a decree recognizing the martyrdom of Flavien-Michel Malk&eacute;, a Syriac Catholic bishop who was killed in 1915 amid the Ottoman Empire's genocide against its Christian minorities. The decision was made during an Aug. 8 meeting between Pope Francis and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Bishop Malk&eacute; will be beatified Aug. 29 &ndash; the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom &ndash; during a liturgy celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III Younan, the Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Lebanon. It is expected that thousands of Syrians and Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State will attend the beatification. &ldquo;In these painful times experienced by Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling dimension,&rdquo; read an Aug. 9 statement of the Syriac Patriarchate of Antioch. &ldquo;Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful days.&rdquo; Malk&eacute; was born in 1858 in the village of Kalaat Mara, a village of the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey, to a Syriac Orthodox family. He joined a monastery of that Church and was ordained a deacon, but then converted to the Syriac Catholic Church. (Both the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholics use the West Syrian rite.) After his conversion, he was ordained a priest in Aleppo in 1883. He as a member of the Fraternity of St. Ephrem, and served parishes in southeastern Turkey, near his home. Ottoman persecution of Christians began in earnest with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1897. Malk&eacute;'s church and home were sacked and burned in 1895, and many of his parishioners were murdered &ndash; including his mother. In total, the massacres killed between 80,000 and 300,000 Christians. He was selected to become a bishop in the 1890s, serving as a chorbishop and helping in the rebuilding of Christian villages. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop, and appointed head of the Syriac Diocese of Gazireh (modern-day Cizre &ndash; 150 miles southeast of Diyarbakir). A second round of persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire began in April 1915. Known as the Armenian Genocide, it targeted the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian minorities in the empire. The Assyrian genocide &ndash; the portion of the mass killings directed against Syriac and Chaldean Christians &ndash; is also known as the Seyfo massacre, from the Syriac word for 'sword'. Some 1.5 million Christians were killed, and millions more were displaced during the genocide. During the summer when the genocide broke out, Bishop Malk&eacute; was in the Idil district, near Gazireh. In June 1915, hearing the Ottoman forces were preparing to massacre Gazireh's people he returned. According to the Syriac Patriarchate, when his friends and acquaintances urged him to withdraw from Gazireh to a safer location, he replied, &ldquo;Even my blood I will shed for my sheep.&rdquo; Together with four of his priests and the Chaldean Bishop of Gazireh, Philippe-Jacques Abraham, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months. Bishop Malk&eacute; refused to convert to Islam, and on Aug. 29, 1915 he was martyred. He was the last Syriac Bishop of Gazireh &ndash; after his death, the diocese was suppressed, and today the Syriac Catholic Church has no presence in Turkey. In an Aug. 8 interview with Vatican Radio, the postulator of Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s cause, Fr. Rami Al Kabalan, spoke of the bishop&rsquo;s deep spiritual life as well as the relevance his martyrdom has today. The bishop, he said, &ldquo;played a fundamental role in encouraging people to defend their faith in the difficulties of the time, during the persecutions of the Ottoman Empire.&rdquo; Bishop Malk&eacute; lived a life of poverty, even selling his liturgical vestments in order to assist the poor and help fight poverty, Fr. Al Kabalan said. In addition to his closeness with the poor, the priest said that Bishop Malk&eacute; was extremely zealous in his apostolate, and visited all of the parishes within his diocese. One of the bishop&rsquo;s most striking phrases, his postulator said, comes from when he was pressured renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Rather than giving in, the bishop replied, &ldquo;I will defend my faith to the blood.&rdquo; Exactly 100 years after his death, Bishop Malk&eacute;&rsquo;s serves as a prophetic witness because &ldquo;we Christians of the East are undergoing the same persecutions, even if in a different way,&rdquo; the priest said. &ldquo;The image of this martyr gives us courage to defend our faith and to live our faith.&rdquo; &ldquo;I personally think the beatification truly has a very strong ecclesial importance in the context of today &hellip; we are attacked in Iraq, in Mosul, where by now the Christian community no longer exists; and in Aleppo and now the situation of Al Qaryatain, the diocese of Homs &hellip; we are truly the most wounded Church! We are undergoing persecution everywhere.&rdquo; Voicing his hopes for the future, Fr. Al Kabalan said he prays that the Lord would illuminate world leaders and those who hold power &ldquo;so that they make peace!&rdquo;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/08\/this-syriac-bishop-will-be-beatified-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Syriac bishop will be beatified on the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}