Flavianus Michael Malke

Mar Flavianus Michael Malke ( Syro -Aramaic ܦ ܠ ܒ ܝ ܐ ܢ ܘ ܣ ܡ ܝ ܟ ܐ ܝ ܠ ܡ ܠ ܟ ܝ, Flabyanus Mekael Malke; * 1856 in Qal Mara; † August 29, 1915 in Cizre ) was the Syrian Catholic Bishop of Gazarta (now Cizre ) and martyrs of the genocide of the Assyrians.

Life

Malke Jacob was born into Qal Mara, a place east of Mardin, in a Syriac Orthodox family that comes from Charpert. In 1868, he joined the Saffron Monastery, where he studied alongside his theological studies Syriac, Turkish and Arabic. He was ordained a deacon in 1878 and elevated to a secretary of the library and to a teacher at the convent school.

Malke leaned against the Catholicism and therefore joined the Syrian Catholic Charafe Convent School, where he spent four years. He was ordained on May 13, 1883 in Aleppo by the Patriarch Ignatius George V Shelhot a priest and assigned to various locations in the Tur Abdin. In the inquiry ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II massacre of Diyarbakir in 1895 his house was looted and burned; the bloodbaths also resulted in the death of many members of his community, including his mother. In the following years he served as a priest in a number of burnt villages of Tur Abdin, where he helped to rebuild in the effort. Because of his work Malke in 1897 appointed Chorbishop and Vice Bishop of Mardin and Gazarta. On January 19, 1913 he was Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani in Beirut, consecrated together with the future patriarch as the successor of Julius Behnam Aqrawi Ignatius Gabriel I. Tappouni bishop.

In the summer of 1915 was a series of massacres and slaughters take place in the rural region of Tur Abdin. Malke, who was at that time in Azech, returned to Gazarta after he heard of the news of an impending genocide against the Christians there. Despite the evidence of local Muslim leader, he refused to flee to. He was arrested on 28 August 1915 by the Ottoman authorities - together with the Chaldean bishop of the city, Philippe -Jacques Abraham. They had the next day the choice between the cruel torture death and conversion to Islam. After their refusal to transfer Jacques Abraham was shot and Michael Malke was long beaten until he was unconscious. He was later hanged.

Canonization

In 2010, the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate asked for the beatification of Michael Malke. He was told by the Holy See to the Venerable Servant of God, which is the first step towards canonization.

On Sunday, 30 September 2012, a final report for the beatification of Mar Michael Malke to Rome was transmitted by the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate.