Rome declares Syriac Catholic Bp. Flavian-Michel Malké a martyr
(Christian Today)
- Thousands of Syrian and Iraqi Christians who have fled the atrocities
of Islamic State are expected to attend the beatification of a Syriac
Catholic bishop later this month.
The celebration comes after Pope Francis authorised a decree declaring
Bishop Flavien-Michel Malké to be a martyr. The beatification will take
place in Lebanon exactly a century after Bishop Malké was killed in
Turkey on 29 August 1915, victim to the Ottoman Empire's attempt to
exterminate Christian minorities.
The beatification liturgy will be celebrated by Ignatius Youssef III
Younan, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, at the Our Lady of Deliverance
convent.
Patriarch Younan said: "In these painful times experienced by
Christians, especially the Syriac communities in Iraq and Syria, the
news of the beatification of one of their martyrs, will surely bring
encouragement and consolation to face the today's trials of appalling
dimension.
"Blessed Martyr Michael, intercede for us, and protect especially the
Christians in the Orient and all the world in these hard and painful
days."
Bishop Malké was born in 1858 in Kalat'ül Mara, a village in what is now
Turkey but was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was martyred in
Gazireh, Turkey. He originally joined a monastery of the Syrian Orthodox
church but then converted to the Syriac Catholic church. Both churches
use the same West Syrian rite.
Posted by
Josephus Flavius
