successive bishops

bishops who successively served the chaldean diocese of beirut

bishop gabriel naamo

He was born in Mosul on June 29, 1879. He was ordained priest on March 2, 1902, and bishop for the Eparchy of Mardin in 1939. He was appointed as first Bishop of Beirut in 1957. He died on February 12, 1964.

bishop gabriel ganni

He was born in Karamlesh on August 5, 1906. He joined the Saint Peter Seminary in 1920 and graduated in 1923. He was ordained priest in Mosul in 1929 after his return from the College of Propaganda Fide in Rome on September 28, 1927. He served in the Seminary as a teacher, then in Syria, Amadiya, and the headquarters of the Patriarchate. He worked in the Eparchy of Amadiya with his uncle, Bishop Hanna Qaryo, and then he was appointed as its Patriarchal Vicar in 1947. He was ordained bishop (Patriarchal Auxiliary) in Baghdad in 1956. In the year 1960, he was elected coadjutor bishop of the Bishop of Beirut Gabriel Naamo. Upon the death of the latter in 1964, he was appointed Bishop for the Eparchy until 1966, when he moved to preside the Archeparchy of Basra. He passed away on November 10, 1980 and was buried in Karamlesh near the grave of his uncle, Bishop Qaryo.

patriarch mar raphael bidawid

He was born in Mosul – Iraq in 1922. He completed his primary education at the Dominican Fathers School in Mosul, and his high school studies at the Chaldean Patriarchate Seminary in the same city. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Pontifical Colleges in Rome 1936-1947. He was ordained a priest and obtained his Doctorate degree in Philosophy from the Pontifical Urban University (Pontificia Università Urbania), treating the subject of “Al-Ghazali’s Religious Philosophy”. He obtained a Doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical Urban University on “The Great Patriarch Timotheus and the situation of Christians during the Abbasid era”. He obtained a diploma in Canon Law and Civil Law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1946. He was professor of philosophy and theology at the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary in Mosul, and professor of religion at the public high schools in Mosul between the years 1948 and 1956. He served as parish priest and a responsible for the Christians in all Iraqi Oil Company sites from Kirkuk to Tripoli in Lebanon between 1950 and 1956. in 1956, he served as Patriarchal Vicar of the Chaldean Eparchy in Kirkuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. He was elected Bishop of the Chaldean Eparchy in Amadiya in Kurdistan (Iraq) in 1957. He was transferred to the Chaldean Eparchy in Beirut (Lebanon) in 1966. He was elected Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in the Holy Synod that was held in Baghdad between 15 and 21 May 1989. He spent 23 years as head of the Chaldean Church in Lebanon and was one of the founders of the Assembly of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon. He participated in several committees (Executive Committee, Catholic Schools Committee, Communications Committee where he was its first secretary, and the Ecumenical Committee). He represented the Catholic Assembly in the fourth general assembly of the Middle East Council for Churches in Cyprus. He supported the idea of the Catholic Church joining this Council as a member. He is a founding member of the Union of Christian Minorities in Lebanon. He is fluent in several languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English and German. He founded the publishing house “Babylon Publications Center” in the Chaldean Eparchy of Beirut, from which several books have been published so far, in addition to a Chaldean-Arabic dictionary and a book for learning the Chaldean language grammar. He authored several articles on religion, philosophy and history published in various magazines and languages such as in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish.

archbishop gabriel batta

He was born in Mardin on New Year’s Day 1907. He finished his high school education in Lebanon, then attended the Seminary in Mosul. He was ordained a priest in 1934 and served in Lebanon until 1959. He was appointed Patriarchal Vicar in Istanbul-Turkey, and then was elected Archbishop of Diyarbakir and Turkey in 1965. Patriarch Paul Cheikho ordained him Archbishop. He retired in 1977 and died in 1994.

bishop youssef thomas

He was born in Alqosh on August 2, 1934. He entered the Seminary in Mosul in 1949. He was sent to Rome to complete his studies in 1953 and received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology. He was ordained priest on December 22, 1960. He specialized in Canon Law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome and obtained his doctorate. He served in Alqosh since 1966 and then was ordained Archbishop on February 5, 1984. He served as Archbishop of Basra and the South until the end of 1995. Then, he moved to Lebanon where he passed away on December 21, 1999. He was buried on his birthday in Alqosh.