AKRA of the CHALDEANS. - An archbishopric of the Syro-Chaldean rite in Kurdistan, whose origin is unknown, with its seat at A., the chief town of a “caza,” with 4,700 inhabitants, in the region of Mossul. In 1630 a Nestorian diocese of this name already existed, to which that of Lubar, another chief town of the same region, is sometimes added. At the beginning of the 19th century the archbishopric of A. appears to have been united with the dioceses of Amadia and Zagu; but by 1850 it had again become independent. It was provisionally reunited with Amadia on 23 April 1895, until Pius X separated it on 23 April 1910, temporarily entrusting it to the Chaldean patriarchate of Babylon. According to the latest statistics, the diocese has 2,779 Catholics distributed among 13 parishes. The dissident Nestorians number 2,157.
BBL.: J.-B. Chabot, Etat religieux des diocèses formant le patriarcat chaldéen de Babylone, in Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 1 (1896), p. 449 sgg.; S. Valihe, Amadia, in DHG, II, cols. 918-919; S. Katcho, Statistiques des cathol. de l'ite chaldéen du patriarcat de Babylone, in Orientalia Chr. Periodica, 4 (1938), p. 273.