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Flavianus Michael Malke

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Blessed Bishop

Flavianus Michael Malke
Eparch of Gazireh
Bet. 1913-5.
DioceseGazireh
SeeGazireh
In office19 January 1913 - 28 August 1915
PredecessorJulius Behnam Aqrawi
SuccessorNone; suppressed
Orders
Ordination13 May 1883
by Ignatius George V Shelhot
Consecration19 January 1913
by Ignatius Ephrem II Rahmani
Personal details
Born
Ya'Qūb Melkī

1858
Kalat’ül Mara, Ottoman Empire
(now in Turkey)
Died29 August 1915(1915-08-29) (aged 55–56)
Cizre, Ottoman Empire
(now in Turkey)
Sainthood
Feast day29 August
Venerated in
Title as SaintBlessed
Beatified29 August 2015
Harissa, Lebanon
by Cardinal Angelo Amato
Attributes
Patronage

Flavianos Michael Malke (Syriac: ܦܠܒܝܐܢܘܣ ܡܝܟܐܝܠ ܡܠܟܝ, Flavyānus Mikhayil Malké), born Ya'Qūb Melkī; (1858 – 29 August 1915) was an Eastern Catholic prelate of the Brothers of Saint Ephrem of an Syriac background.[1] He became the Syrian Catholic eparch of Gazarta (modern Cizre).[1][2] Malke was killed in Gazarta during the Assyrian/Syriac Genocide after he refused to convert to Islam.

On 8 August 2015, Pope Francis approved his beatification after he determined that Malke was killed in hatred of the faith.[1] He was beatified on 29 August 2015, the centenary of his martyrdom.[3]

Biography

Malke was born in Kalat’ül Mara, a village to the east of Mardin, Turkey, in the Ottoman Empire.[1] He belonged to a family from the Syriac Orthodox Church which hails from Kharput. In 1868, he joined the Saffron Monastery where he studied Aramaic, Arabic and Turkish beside theology. He was consecrated a deacon in 1878 and a secretary of the library and a teacher in the monastery's school.[4]

He leaned towards Eastern Catholicism and subsequently joined the Syriac Catholic Charafe Monastery school spending four years. He was ordained a priest in Aleppo on 13 May 1883 and was assigned to various villages in Tur Abdin. His church and house were sacked and burned in 1895 during the Hamidian massacres in Diyarbekir Vilayet, during which Father Flavianus' mother and many other members of his parish were murdered.[5]

Over the following years he served as a visiting priest in several sacked and burned villages in Tur Abdin, where he helped with rebuilding efforts. Due to his works, Malke was ordained Chorbishop in 1897 and vice bishop of Mardin and Gazarta. On 19 Januari 1913, he was consecrated a bishop together with the future Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Gabriel Tappuni in Beirut.[5]

In the summer of 1915, during the height of the Armenian Genocide, in the rural region Tur Abdin, Malke, who was in Azakh at the time, returned to Gazarta upon hearing news of the impending Assyrian/Syriac Genocide and refused to flee despite being advised so by local Turkish and Kurdish Muslim leaders. He was arrested by Ottoman authorities on 28 August 1915, alongside the Chaldean bishop of the city, Philippe-Jacques Abraham. According to Muslim eyewitnesses they were given choice between death or conversion to Islam. Upon their refusal, Bishop Jacques Abraham was immediately shot dead and Bishop Michael Malke was beaten senseless and then beheaded.[5]

Beatification

In 2010, the Syriac Catholic Patriarch launched a request for the beatification of Malke. He was declared Servant of God by the Holy See, which is the first step towards sainthood.[6] [7]

On Sunday, 30 September 2012, a report was submitted to Rome by the Syriac Catholic Patriarch for Mar Michael Malke's beatification.[8]

On 8 August 2015, his beatification was approved after Pope Francis determined that Melki was killed In odium fidei ("Out of Hatred of the Catholic Faith").[1] Cardinal Angelo Amato - on behalf of the pope - presided over the beatification in Lebanon on 29 August 2015.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Pope approves decree of martyrdom". Vatican Radio. 8 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Bishop Flavien-Michel Malké". catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  3. ^ AsiaNews.it. "For pope, the blessed martyr Flavianus Michael Malke can bring "consolation" to persecuted Mideast Christians". asianews.it. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  4. ^ "Bakhdida.net" تعيين سيادة المطران مار يوليوس ميخائيل الجميل مدافعا في الفاتيكان في قضية تطويب خادم الله المطران فلابيانوس ميخائيل ملكي (in Arabic). Bakhdida.net. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b c كرسي أبرشية ماردين (in Arabic). Archbishopric of Syrian Catholic Church in Aleppo. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  6. ^ "افتتاح التحقيق في دعوى تطويب المطران الشهيد ميخائيل ملكي". Syriac Catholic Patriarchy. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  7. ^ "1915". Hagiography Circle. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  8. ^ "الكنيسة السريانية الكاثوليكية تختتم التحقيق الأبرشي في دعوى تطويب المطران الشهيد مار فلابيانوس ميخائيل ملكي". Syriac Catholic Patriarchy. Retrieved 11 February 2013.