Blessed Ignatius Maloyan

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Pope Francis to Canonize Armenian Genocide Martyr Blessed Ignatius Maloyan

By the decision of Pope Francis, Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, a martyr of the Armenian Genocide, will be canonized, according to the Vatican’s official news site.

Blessed Ignatius Maloyan was born on April 19, 1869, in the city of Mardin. At the age of 14, he joined the clerical community of the Monastery of Bzommar in Lebanon and was ordained in 1896, receiving the name Ignatius.

In 1910, he was appointed Archbishop of Mardin for the Armenian Catholic Church. During the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Maloyan and hundreds of Armenian Christians were arrested by Ottoman authorities. Despite brutal torture, he refused to convert to Islam or renounce his faith. On June 11, 1915, he was executed along with over 400 members of his community. Witnesses recounted that before his death, he forgave his persecutors and proclaimed, “I have full confidence in God; I am innocent.”

Maloyan was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 7, 2001, recognizing his martyrdom in odium fidei — in hatred of the faith. His upcoming canonization marks a significant moment for the Armenian Catholic Church and the global Armenian community, honoring his enduring legacy of faith, courage, and sacrifice.

 

https://www.facebook.com/301arm/posts/pfbid02Xafx6rmEQajpekq5ZYMCdxgpWZ5eEf2cqSGhm1uzZBnXosisTz1kGGrbKfMwxWf7l

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[MosJan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Maloyan

 

Ignatius Shoukrallah Maloyan, ICPB (Armenian: Իգնատիոս Մալոյան, April 8, 1869 – June 11, 1915) was the Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Mardin between 1911–15. After repeatedly refusing conversion to Islam, he was tortured and murdered by the Ottoman Gendarmerie during the Armenian genocide, which was organized in Diyarbekir Vilayet by Dr. Mehmed Reshid. Maloyan was beatified by Pope John Paul II as a martyr in 2001.

Early life

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Shoukrallah Maloyan was born in 1869 in Armenian family. When he was fourteen years old, he was sent by his parish priest to the Armenian Catholic Cathedral at Bzoummar, Lebanon.^[1] He completed his theological studies on 6 August 1896 and adopted the religious name of Ignatius in honor of St. Ignatius of Antioch. During the years 1897–1910, Maloyan served the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Alexandria as a parish priest in Alexandria and Cairo. Maloyan began serving in Constantinople as an assistant to the Armenian Catholic Patriarch, Paul Petros XII Sabbaghian in 1904.^[1] According to historian Charles A. Frazee, the Patriarch chose to continue the policies of his predecessor and did not protest against Turkish and Kurdish massacres of his faithful, but instead focussed upon giving humanitarian relief to the survivors.^[2]

After the Young Turk Revolution in 1907, however, the Patriarch came under attack by some Catholic Armenians, who considered him, "an unworthy prelate". Having little desire for conflict, Patriarch Paul Petros submitted his resignation to Pope Pius X in August 1910.^[3]

The National Council of the Armenian Catholic Church accordingly met and, on April 23, 1911, unanimously selected the Bishop of Adana as Paul Petros XIII Terzian. During a visit to the Vatican in order to receive the Pallium, the Patriarch was told that the Pope would choose the bishops for the vacant Sees out of a list of names chosen by the Patriarch and approved by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Pope Pius X also summoned the Armenian Catholic bishops to Rome, "to confer on the difficulties facing their Church."^[3]

Despite the best efforts of Armenian Catholic dissenters and of the Ottoman State, Patriarch Paul Petros XIII accordingly convened the Synod in Rome with 13 bishops present on October 15, 1911.^[3] Following a Synod whose decrees greatly strengthened the independence and governing role the Armenian Catholic clergy at the expense of the Ottoman Government and the laity,^[4] Fr. Maloyan was consecrated in Rome as Archbishop of Mardin on October 22, 1911.^[5]

In a 20th-century renewal of the Investiture Controversy, both the National Council and Sultan Mehmet V declared, in retaliation for having convened a Synod outside of the Ottoman Empire and for consecrating Bishops without asking first for the Government's approval, that Patriarch Paul Petros XIII was deposed. A Patriarchal locum tenens, Bishop Hatchadourian of Malatia, was appointed instead and moved into the Patriarch's official residence in Istanbul. Although Pope Pius X immediately declared the new "Patriarch" suspended, the Vatican was unable to restore Patriarch Paul Petros XIII as long as the Ottoman Government supported his rival.^[6]

For this reason, Archbishop Maloyan arrived his Archdiocese, immediately after the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état transformed the Empire into a de facto single party state governed by the Three *****s as the thinking heads of the Committee of Union and Progress political party, to find the Armenian Catholics of Mardin in turmoil. He tried to restore order, while also encouraging devotion to the Sacred Heart.^[7]

According to Charles E. Frazee, "Thus the Armenian Catholic Church, with about 140,000 members, entered the period of the First World War with a deep division in its ranks. Each Patriarch had his own partisans among the clergy and laity, and compromise seemed far away. Despite the fact that, of all Armenians, Catholics were the most loyal to the Ottoman Government, they were not to be spared the genocide that lay ahead."^[6]

Prelude to genocide

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https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20011007_beat-maloyan_en.html

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https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=7246

Choukrallah Maloyan had been ordained in Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Empire) but served as a parish priest in Egypt. He took the name Ignazio in remembrance of the great saint from Antioch. He was sent to Mardin, Turkey in 1911 to be the archbishop to the Armenian Catholics there.

In 1915, claiming that the Catholic church was being used to hide weapons, the Turks arrested Ignazio and around 400 other Christians. The chief of the court police, Mamdooh Bek, ordered them to convert to Islam; they declined. They were chained together and marched into the desert. When they rested, Ignazio celebrated Mass with some bread scraps. That went over poorly with Mr. Bek, who ordered the group executed. Ignazio was the last to die, following one last opportunity from Mr. Bek for conversion.

His body was reported to have radiated light after he was shot, but since there were no Christian survivors, I'm not sure who reported that. It seems unlikely that the Turk would have said it, having just murdered him. I hate to be a skeptic, but I think that may be embellishment on an otherwise historical account.

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