Mar Yohannan Elias Mellus (or ''Milos'', ''Milus'') (1831–1908) was a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

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 ...

. Elias Mellus was born on September 19, 1831, in

Mardin Mardin ( ku, Mêrdîn; ar, ماردين; syr, ܡܪܕܝܢ, Merdīn; hy, Մարդին) is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on ...

. He entered in the monastery of

Rabban Hormizd Rabban Mar Hormizd ( syc, ܕܪܒܢ ܗܘܪܡܙܕ ) was a monk who lived in the seventh century in modern northern Iraq. ''Rabban'' is the Syriac term for ''monk''. "Rabban" is also the Aramaic word for "teacher". He founded the Rabban Hormizd Mo ...

Alqosh Alqosh ( syr, ܐܲܠܩܘܿܫ, Judeo-Aramaic: אלקוש, ar, ألقوش, alternatively spelled Alkosh or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District and is situated 45 km north of the ...

. On September 21, 1856, he was ordained priest and on June 5, 1864, he was ordained bishop

Aqra Aqra, properly ʿAqra, is a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church founded in the mid-19th century. Background Before the fourteenth century the Aqra or Aqrah region was part of the diocese of Marga, one of the suffragan dioceses in the metrop ...

by Patriarch

Joseph VI Audo Joseph VI Audo (or ''Audu'' or ''Oddo'') (1790–1878) was the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1847 to 1878. Early life Joseph VI Audo was born in Alqosh in 1790 and in 1814 he became a monk of the monastery of Rabban Hormizd. He ...

. He worked from 1874 to 1882 in the Indian city of

Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

. On behalf of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch

, he looked in vain for the reunification of the Catholic faction of

Thomas Christians The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, ''Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani'', ''Malankara Nasrani'', or ''Nasrani Mappila'', are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala (Malabar region), ...

called

Syro-Malabar lat, Ecclesia Syrorum-Malabarensium mal, മലബാറിലെ സുറിയാനി സഭ , native_name_lang=, image = St. Thomas' Cross (Chennai, St. Thomas Mount).jpg , caption = The Mar Thoma Nasrani Sl ...

with their sister church, namely the " Patriarchate of Babylon" as the Catholic successor to the ancient

catholicate A catholicosate or catholicate is a particular ecclesiastical primacy, headed by a primate titled as a catholicos. Such regional primacies exist within various branches of Eastern Christianity, especially those of Oriental Orthodox tradition. The ...

of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The experiment resulted in a schism: some of the followers of Mellus left the Chaldean Catholic Church and joined the

Chaldean Syrian Church The Chaldean Syrian Church of India ( Classical Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ܕܐܬܘܖ̈ܝܐ; Malayalam: / ''Kaldaya Suriyani Sabha'') is an Eastern Christian denomination, based in Thrissur, in India. It is organized as a metropolitan provi ...

in 1894/1909. This group gained more than regional significance. In 1968 their metropolitan, Mar Thomas Darmo, opposed Assyrian Patriarch Mar

Shimun XXI Eshai Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII ( syr, ܡܪܝ ܐܝܫܝ ܫܡܥܘܢ ܟܓ.) (26 February 1908 – 6 November 1975), sometimes known as Mar Eshai Shimun XXI, Mar Shimun XXIII Ishaya, Mar Shimun Ishai, or Simon Jesse,Foster, p. 34 served as the 119th List of pa ...

and formed

Ancient Church of the East The Ancient Church of the East is an Eastern Christian denomination. It branched from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1964, under the leadership of Mar Thoma Darmo (d. 1969). It is one of three Assyrian Churches that claim continuity with the ...

. In 1882 Mar Elias Mellus was suspended by his office of bishop and returned to

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

. After some hesitation he fully reentered in the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1890 and was appointed bishop of Mardin, where he died on February 16, 1908. He wrote a "History of Oriental Chaldean Church" (from the early to mid-6th century).

Notes

Literature

* Eugène Tisserant: ''Eastern Christianity in India''. Longmans, Green and Co., London 1957, 112-119. * Georg Graf: ''History of Christian Arabic literature''. 4th Bd Apost Bibl. Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1951, 112f. * Joseph Habbi: ''Les Chaldéens et les Malabar au 19e siècle.''In: Oriens Christianus 64 (1980) 82-107. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellus, Yohannan Elias Chaldean bishops Iraqi Eastern Catholics People from Mardin 1831 births 1908 deaths