Pope Francis and the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Awa III, met at the Vatican on November 9, 2024. The occasion was twofold: the 30th anniversary of the Joint Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church, and the 40th anniversary of the first visit to Rome by an Assyrian patriarch. On this occasion, the Bishop of Rome announced the inclusion in the Roman Martyrology of St. Isaac of Nineveh, also known as Isaac the Syrian, a 7th-century monk highly venerated in Syrian-Eastern tradition.
“I am pleased to announce that the great Isaac of Nineveh, one of the most venerated Fathers of the Syro-Oriental tradition, acknowledged as a teacher and a saint by all traditions, will be added to the Roman Martyrology,” Pope Francis said during the audience celebrating the rapprochement between the Catholic and Assyrian Churches.
“Through the intercession of St. Isaac of Nineveh, united to that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, our God and Savior, may the Christians of the Middle East always bear witness to the Risen Christ in those war-torn lands,” added the Pope, who had shown his attention to this Church during his visit to Iraq in 2021.
“And may the friendship between our Churches continue to flourish, until the blessed day when we can celebrate together at the same altar and receive the communion of the same Body and Blood of the Saviour, ‘so that the world may believe,’” he concluded.
The Pope hailed the concrete effects of ecumenical progress between the two Churches. He emphasized that “theological dialogue is indispensable in our journey towards unity, since the unity we yearn for is unity in faith, while the dialogue of truth must never be separated from the dialogue of charity and the dialogue of life. In this way, it is a complete and human dialogue.”
Who was Isaac the Syrian?
Isaac of Nineveh was “a monk and bishop in the second half of the 7th century. He belonged to the pre-Ephesian tradition, i.e. the Churches of the Assyrian-Chaldean tradition. Born in present-day Qatar, where he had his first monastic experience, he was ordained bishop of Nineveh, near present-day Mosul (Iraq), between 676 and 680,” according to the Vatican press release.
“After a few months as bishop, he asked to return to monastic life and retired to the monastery of Rabban Shabur in Beth Huzaye (in present-day southwestern Iran). There, he composed several collections of ascetic-spiritual discourses that made him famous.”
His Church, which had not accepted the Council of Ephesus in 431, was no longer in communion with any other Church. Nevertheless, the writings of Isaac of Nineveh were translated into all the languages spoken by Christians: Greek, Arabic, Latin, Georgian, Slavonic, Ethiopian and Romanian.
“Isaac thus became an important spiritual authority, especially in monastic circles of all traditions, who quickly venerated him among their saints and fathers,” says the dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.
“It is hoped that the inclusion in the Roman Martyrology of Isaac of Nineveh, a witness to the precious Christian spiritual heritage of the Middle East, will contribute to the rediscovery of his teaching and to the unity of all Christ's disciples,” adds the dicastery in charge of ecumenism.
Ecumenism of holiness
His inclusion in the Roman Martyrology “proves that holiness did not stop with separations and exists across denominational boundaries,” says the dicastery, citing paragraph 122 of the final document of the recent Synod on Synodality.
The example of the saints of other Churches is “a gift we can receive, including their memory in our liturgical calendar,” wrote the Synod participants in this paragraph, which was overwhelmingly adopted, with only nine oppositions.
Referring to a much more contemporary period, Pope Francis announced on May 11, 2023, on the occasion of the visit of Coptic Pope Tawadros II, the inclusion in the Roman martyrology of the 21 martyrs, among them 20 Egyptian Coptic-Orthodox, executed by ISIS on a beach in Libya in 2015.
Closer ties between Catholics and Assyrians
For the November 9 audience, Patriarch Mar Awa III was accompanied by members of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, which is currently working on the importance of liturgy in the life of the Church.
The Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church formalized their rapprochement with the Joint Christological Declaration, signed on November 11, 1994, by John Paul II and Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV. This agreement put an end to 1500 years of Christological controversy dating back to the Council of Ephesus (431). Several significant steps forward were subsequently taken, notably with the 2001 declaration establishing a principle of Eucharistic hospitality between Chaldeans and Assyrians.
Pope Francis had already received Patriarch Mar Awa III on November 19, 2022. “Here you are no stranger or alien, but a fellow citizen. Indeed, you are a beloved brother,” said the Pope at the time. He was specifically alluding to the patriarch’s years of study in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Mar Awa III is the first patriarch to emerge from the Assyrian diaspora in the West. A native of Chicago, Mar Awa III was ordained bishop at a very young age in 2008, at just 33, and was enthroned patriarch in September 2021, at 46.
Progress in recent years
His predecessor Mar Gewargis III is still alive, but voluntarily retired in 2021, as he approached his 80th birthday. The Pope had received him at the Vatican in 2018, signing a declaration with him on the situation of Christians in the Middle East, and the two Church leaders had met again in Iraqi Kurdistan in March 2021.
“I also recall our own warm embrace in Erbil, during my journey to Iraq, following the end of the Eucharistic celebration. On that day, so many believers who endured immense suffering for the mere fact of their being Christians, encircled us with their warmth and joy: the holy people of God seemed to be encouraging us on the path to greater unity!” said Pope Francis during the visit of the new Assyrian Patriarch in 2022.
The Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East claims descent from the Apostle Thomas. It has been endangered in its historic lands of Iraq since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent security collapse, particularly with ISIS attacks intensifying starting in 2014. It currently numbers between 200,000 and 400,000 faithful, of whom between 50,000 and 100,000 still live in Iraq. The bulk of the faithful are now in the diaspora, mainly in the USA and Australia.
