Yosip Khnanisho

Mar Yosip Khnanisho (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܝܘܣܦ ܚܢܢܝܫܘܥ), the metropolitan or matran of Shemsdin from 1918 to 1977.

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Life

Hakkari

Of the Mar Khnanishu family, he studied with Rev. Rehana, the head of the Seminary in Mar Ishu Monastery. He was ordained a deacon at age 12 and ordained as a priest in 1912. In 1914, he was sent as a delegate to participate in a meeting at the patriarchal cell in Qudchanis to discuss the effects of World War I on the Church and the nation and prepare for the changes that were expected to take place. While there, he was consecrated a Bishop on August 10, 1914. He remained in Qudchanis until 1916.

Iraq

In 1918, Mar Yosip was appointed as assistant to the Patriarch Mar Shimun XXII Paulos as Locum Tenens. In December 1918 he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in Baghdad Iraq, by the Patriarch.

In 1933, he was made administrator of the Church in Iraq and the Middle East. In 1973 when Eshai Shimun XXIII resigned his position as Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Yosip Khnanisho was vested with responsibilities of administering the Church worldwide. At the same time the Iraqi government issued a Republican decree appointing Yosip Khnanisho as the Supreme Head of all the Assyrians in Iraq.

Death

On the 3 July 1977, Yosip died in Baghdad, Iraq. His funeral services were conducted on 6 July 1977, at the Church of Mar Gewargis in Dora, a suburb of Baghdad.

Mar Yosip Khnanisho Church in San Jose, California is named after the Metropolitan.

References

See also