Mar Youhannan Semaan Issayi (1914 -یوحنا سمعان عیسائی) ;1999)) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tehran of the

Chaldean Catholics Chaldean Catholics () ( syr, ܟܲܠܕܵܝܹ̈ܐ ܩܲܬܘܿܠܝܼܩܵܝܹ̈ܐ), also known as Chaldeans (, ''Kaldāyē''), Chaldo-Assyrians or Assyro-Chaldeans, are modern Assyrian adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which originates fr ...

from March 16, 1971, until his death on February 7, 1999. He was born in

Sanandaj Sanandaj (Persian: سنندج, ; ku, سنە, Sine, often romanized as Senneh, is the capital of Kurdistan Province in Iran. With a population of 414,069, Sanandaj is the twenty third largest city in Iran and the second largest Kurdish city. San ...

سنندج, Kurdistan

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

on June 27, 1914, and ordained priest on March 3, 1940, and

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

bishop on, October 22, 1967, in Iran.

Additional titles

Coadjutor Archbishop The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadj ...

of Sehna of the Chaldeans (

): (September 1, 1967 – March 7, 1970) *

Titular Titular may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Title character in a narrative work, the character referred to in its title Religion * Titular (Catholicism), a cardinal who holds a titulus, one of the main churches of Rome ** Titular bisho ...

Archbishop of

Hieropolis Hierapolis (; grc, Ἱεράπολις, lit. "Holy City") was originally a Phrygian cult centre of the Anatolian mother goddess of Cybele and later a Greek city. Its location was centred upon the remarkable and copious hot springs in classica ...

: (September 1, 1967 – March 7, 1970) *Metropolitan Archbishop of Sehna of the Chaldeans (Iran): (March 7, 1970 – March 16, 1971.

Education

His Excellency attended the Chaldean Seminary in Mosul for the formation and left for Rome in 1933. He attended the

Pontifical Urbaniana University The Pontifical Urban University, also called the ''Urbaniana'' after its names in both Latin and Italian,; it, Pontificia Università Urbaniana. is a pontifical university under the authority of the Congregation for the Evangelization of People ...

, where he earned a master's degree in both philosophy and theology. He then pursued doctoral studies and obtained his Ph.D. During his academic career, he mastered 8 languages: the classic

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

, Colloquial Syriac (Modern Assyrian), Persian, Arabic, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Kurdish.

Priesthood life

He was ordained as a priest in 1940 and elevated to the rank of Archbishop on October 22, 1967. His excellency Metropolitan Mar Youhannan

Semaan Semaan (Syriac Aramaic: ܫܡܥܘܢ ''Šemʿōn'' ; , ''Semʻān'') (also spelled Sem'an, Semán, Simaan, Sim'an, Samaan, Samman, Sam'an, Sima'an) is a Christian surname mainly found in the Levant area of the Middle East. It is derived from the Semi ...

Issayi for more than half-century dedicated his life and earnestly served the Assyro-Chaldean Catholic Congregation at

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') ( Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ha ...

Kermanshah Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...

Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...

, and

. He supervised several construction projects of the churches, schools, and other charity institutions affiliated to the Assyro-Chaldean Catholic Church at Tehran Diocese.

Writer and translator

Translation of Eastern Rite Mass book from Aramaic into Modern Colloquial Syriac. A writer of extensively religious or Historic issues in modern Assyrian including an unpublished comprehensive Syriac Dictionary. The writer of different religious books for Assyro-Chaldean students from elementary to high school levels. Mar Youhannan was editor of the church's periodicals named Marga and Payam published in Persian and modern Assyro-Chaldean. Mar Youhannan published a poetry book devoted to the Virgin Mary and besides of his clergy services, he was a professor of Aramaic and Assyrian language.

Hymnist

Mar Youhannan composed many Assyro-Chaldean hymns (music & lyric) for the Christmas Mass, Good Friday, and Easter Mass. These hymns were harmonized in polyphonic by Maestro

Paulus Khofri Paulus Khofri ( syr, ܦܘܠܘܣ ܟܦܪܝ, fa, پولوس خفری), was an Assyrian composer, lyricist and painter. He was born August 7, 1923, in Baghdad, Iraq and died in Tehran, Iran in May 2000 at the age of 77. Biography Paulus Khofr ...

and performed by the Saint Joseph's Church Choir of Tehran and other church choirs worldwide.

External links

*http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bissayi.html *http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/tehr0.htm#10223 *http://banipal.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=127
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semaan Issayi, Mir Youhannan Iranian bishops Chaldean archbishops Iranian Eastern Catholics People from Sanandaj People from Tehran 1914 births 1999 deaths Iranian Assyrian people