Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII

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Mar Eashai Shimun XXIII

Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII, sometimes known as Mar Shimun XXI Ishaya, Catholicos Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1920 until his assassination on November 6, 1975. (The difference in regnal numbers depends on which members of the Shimun family one counts as Patriarchs; Mar Eshai himself used the regnal number XXIII.)

Born into the patriarchal family in Qudshanis in 1908, Mar Eshai was chosen as patriarch on the death of his uncle during the Assyrian genocide, at the age of 11. He was educated in England at Westcott House, University of Cambridge. He was the translator or author of several books on the theology and history of the Church of the East. The uncertainties caused in 1933 by the independence of Iraq from colonial rule forced the patriarch's relocation to Cyprus and then, in 1940, to Chicago. Mar Eshai became an American citizen about 1949 and settled in the San Francisco area in 1954.

A dispute over herditary succession and church calendars caused the metropolitan of the Church of the East in India (known there as the Chaldean Syrian Church) to break away in 1964. The rift was healed only in 1995, thanks to H. H. Mar Dinkha IV, though a small group (the Ancient Church of the East) remains separated from the main body of the Church of the East.

The patriarch sought to resign for health reasons in the late 1960s, but was persuaded to remain in office. Many within the church believed that the patriarch should take a more active role, as he had before 1933, in pushing for a homeland for the Assyrian people. Shortly thereafter the patriarch became convinced that nothing in the canon law of the Church of the East prohibited the patriarch from marrying. He therefore married in August 1973.

Following this action church leaders called for a council to decide the future of the patriarchate. The council was scheduled for November 19, 1975, but was rescheduled for January 5, 1976. In the meantime, on November 6, 1975, the patriarch was shot and killed at the door of his home in San Jose, California, by David Ismail[1]. According to records of Ismail's trial, Ismail indicated that he was upset over the partriarch's marriage; however, the records also suggest links between Ismail and persons who may have been angry at the patriarch's refusal to push for an Assyrian homeland. When the church council finally met in London on October 17, 1976, it elected Mar Dinkha IV (who had been bishop of Tehran) as patriarch.