Chaldeans

CHALDEANS. - This is the name given, from the region of ancient Chaldea where they dwell, to the Syrian Catholics converted from Nestorianism.

The first union was effected around the middle of the 16th century. The occasion for it was a dispute over the election of the patriarch. Indeed, among the Nestorians the patriarchal dignity had become hereditary from 1450. Now, on the death of the patriarch Simon VII Bar Māmā (1551), the opponents of his nephew Simon VIII Denhā elected the superior of the convent of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh, John Sulāqā. The latter sought protection from the Custos of the Holy Land, who sent him to Rome, where in 1552 he entered the Catholic Church and was recognized as patriarch by the Holy See. Having returned to his homeland, he chose Diarbekir as his residence. He died in 1555, a martyr of the union.

One of his successors transferred his residence about 30 years later to Persia, near Salmas. Relations with Rome became ever colder, until Simon XIII Denhā (1662-1700) abandoned the union completely and settled at Kotchannes in the mountains of Kurdistan. But not all the Catholics apostatized. At Diarbekir there remained a strong nucleus of Catholics, effectively aided by the Capuchins. The bishop of that city, Joseph, became a Catholic in 1672 and received from Rome in 1681 the title of patriarch. He succeeded in obtaining recognition from the Turkish government as independent of the Nestorian patriarch. The Catholics of the patriarch of Diarbekir gained many adherents also in the region of Mosul. The fraction of Nestorians that had remained there in the 16th century found the way back toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. From the fusion of these Catholics with those of Diarbekir there was formed, not without grave difficulties, the present Chaldean Catholic patriarchate.

The Nestorian successors of the patriarch Simon VII Bar Māmā resided in the convent of Rabban Hormizd near Alqosh in the region of Mosul. They all called themselves Elijah. Several attempts at union were made, which remained fruitless until the end of the 18th century. Finally Elijah XI signed in 1771 the profession of the Catholic faith. He then designated as his successor his nephew John Hormez (1760) and consecrated him bishop at only 16 years of age. After the death of Elijah XI (1778), he became a Catholic, and after the death of a competitor of his he was elected patriarch. The Holy See did not recognize his election; nevertheless in 1783 it confirmed him as archbishop of Mosul and administrator of the patriarch of Babylon. The Latin missionaries hoped to be able, with his help, to convert all the Nestorians dependent on him. There arose, however, a bitter and varied struggle that dragged on for decades between the Catholics of long standing of Diarbekir and the newly converted John Hormez, who in 1834 was recognized by Rome as the sole patriarch of all the Catholic Chaldeans. With him begins the series of Chaldean Catholic patriarchs of Babylon that continues to this day.

This repugnant dispute had been fueled not only by suspicion regarding the sincerity of John Hormez but also by personal rivalries and by enmity against the Abuna family, to which John belonged. Rome decided to put an end to the discord by suppressing one of the patriarchates, namely that of Diarbekir. To this end, in 1791 it appointed John Hormez administrator of that patriarchate after the resignation of the patriarch Joseph IV (1780). But soon, because of the strong opposition of the Catholics of Diarbekir against John, Joseph IV was elected as administrator of the patriarchate (1792). Having died in 1796, he had as his successor in the office of administrator Augustine Hindi, appointed in 1802. The opponents of John Hormez had accused him of various faults, not all unfounded, both before the Holy See and before the Turkish government, succeeding in having him put in prison for some time. Under the impression of these accusations the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide appointed in 1811 Augustine Hindi apostolic delegate for all the Chaldeans and suspended John Hormez a year later. This suspension was confirmed in 1818, while in that same year Augustine Hindi received the pallium, which he interpreted as an appointment to the patriarchate, taking the name Joseph V. He died in 1827. With him ends the series of the patriarchs of Diarbekir.

John Hormez did not despair of his cause. He found valid support in the Latin bishop of Baghdad, Msgr. Alessandro Coupperie. Among John's opponents one must name first of all the monks of the Congregation of St. Hormisdas, founded in 1808 by Gabriel Danbo. John Hormez, at the insistence of Msgr. Coupperie, was absolved from the suspension in 1826. It was decided that he would retain the title of patriarch, but after renouncing the office of archbishop of Mosul and of administrator of the patriarchate. However, he did not submit to these conditions. Finally the successor of Msgr. Coupperie (d. 1831), Lorenzo Trionche, obtained in 1834 the appointment of John Hormez as patriarch of Babylon. John died in 1838.

The Chaldean patriarch of Babylon resides at Mosul. His jurisdiction extends over all the Chaldeans of the Near East. The great majority of these live in Iraq, where there are 6 dioceses with 100,620 faithful, 111 priests and 83 churches in all. In Iran there are 3 dioceses with 11,482 faithful, 19 priests and two churches. In Asiatic Turkey the 4 dioceses already existing there are today destroyed. There remain 6,465 faithful, 4 priests and two churches. In Syria there has for some time existed the diocese of Gezirah with 3,107 faithful, 11 priests and two churches. Outside these dioceses there are still missions in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine with a total of 9,177 faithful, 14 priests and 8 churches. Scattered throughout the world, especially in America, there live 9,889 faithful and 4 priests. The total number of Chaldeans is 140,720 faithful and 163 priests; that of the churches 98 (cf. statistics of 1937, in Orient. christ. periodica, 4 [1938], pp. 272-74). Monasticism is almost exclusively represented by the aforementioned Congregation of St. Hormisdas.

The Chaldeans lack a literature worthy of note. Recently, however, the Lazarist Paul Bedjan (v.) has distinguished himself.

Guglielmo De Vries

THE CHALDEAN RITE

Also called Nestorian, Persian, Syro-Oriental, it had its origins in Mesopotamia, which was incorporated into the Persian empire, and spread southward into Malabar and eastward into Central Asia and China (for the liturgical fragments discovered cf. A. Baumstark, Die christl. literarischen Turfan-Funde, in Or. christ., new series, 3 [1913], pp. 328-332; id., Neue soghdisch-nestorianische Bruchstücke, ibid., 4 [1915], pp. 123-28; N. Pigoulewsky, Fragments syriaques et syro-turcs de Hara-Hoto et du Tourfan, in Revue Or. Chrétien, 30 [1935-36], pp. 3-46). Today the rite exists among the Nestorians of Kurdistan, among the Catholic Chaldeans of Iraq and Persia, and among the Malabarese. For the particularities of this last rite, v. MALABARESE, RITO.

Of the ancient Chaldean rite, before the 5th century, probably originating — and only in part — from the Aramaic city of Edessa, it is impossible to form an idea, for want of almost all information and documents. This rite was in part abandoned or reformed at the Synod of Seleucia (410) after the example of the "Western" Fathers, that is, of Osroene and northern Syria, and this is the reason why the most important sources of the new rite also include the Catecheses of Theodore of Mopsuestia. To these are added the Homilies of Narses of Nisibis, who also composed hymns for the liturgical feasts, and the decisions of various synods of the Nestorian Church. The greatest organizer of the rite was the katolicós Ìšò'jahb III (647-37): he regulated the pre-anaphoral part of the Mass, prescribed the use of only three anaphoras (of the Apostles, of Nestorius, of Theodore of Mopsuestia) with the exclusion of the others, removed the exorcisms from the baptismal rite, abbreviated the ceremonies of ordinations, and composed the choir book called Hudrā. After him, the ceremonies underwent few changes, so it seems at least to one who examines the liturgical commentaries of Abraham bar Lifeh, the anonymous writer of the 9th century, Ìšò' bar Nūn, Timothy I, Jōhannān bar Zō'bi, 'Abdišō', Timothy II, and the casuists in their Questions and answers (cf. W. C. van Unnik, Nestorian Questions on the Administration of the Eucharist, Haarlem 1937). The texts, however, were able to renew themselves, and liturgical poetry was enriched up to the 17th century (cf. A. Baumstark, Gesch. der syr. Literatur, Bonn 1922). But the definitive and unifying redaction of the liturgical books still in use today is due to the work of the "Upper Monastery" of Mosul (cf. A. Rücker, Das Obere Kloster bei Mossul und seine Bedeutung für die Geschichte der ostsyr. Liturgie, in Or. christ., 3rd series, 7 [1932], pp. 180-87). After the 13th century the liturgy followed the profound decadence of the Nestorian Church; the faithful who united with the Catholic Church in the 16th century and then at the end of the 18th century have preserved their rite fairly purely. What strikes one most in the Chaldean rite is the ancient structure of its ceremonies, by which it constitutes a truly separate rite among the Eastern rites, different also from the Syro-Western rite, with which it shares the Syriac language and the poetic heritage of St. Ephrem. Such antiquity and separatism are due to the geographical and political position (Mesopotamia lay outside the Roman and Byzantine world) and to the fundamental dogma of the Nestorian Church, which separated it from the Orthodox and the Monophysites.

The Mass. - After the usual beginning, the psalmody begins, which together with the hymn of the sanctuary, the chant called Lakā Mārā and the incensation of the church, constitute the preparatory rites; the Catholic Chaldeans add to these the preparation of the oblates. The instructional part of the Mass opens with the Trisagion; there are four readings: the first is taken from the Law, the second from the Prophets, the third is the Epistle, the fourth the Gospel; each reading has its diaconal announcement, its introductory prayer, and the Gospel also has the incensation. The Kārāzūtā, a kind of Litany, which continues the great prayer for common needs, already attested by St. Justin, has remained only on certain days of Lent, but daily the prayer that accompanies it is recited. To end the Mass of the catechumens, the priest says the prayer of the inclination of the head in order to give the imposition of hands and the blessing to the catechumens and to the penitents, who leave after the deacon's intimation: "Let him who has not received Baptism depart! Let him who has not received the sign of life depart! Let him who does not receive it depart! Depart, O hearers; and guard the doors." For the faithful, left alone, the sacrifice begins. The priest washes his hands, takes the bread and the wine with water, offers the oblates, making the paten touch the chalice three times, while the choir sings the hymn of the mysteries. Then the bishop designates (thus in antiquity) one of the priests seated around him to sanctify the gifts; this one goes toward the sanctuary, and after the singing of the Creed, recites the prayer of the veil, making three bows and at each bow advancing one step toward the altar. Having arrived there, he kisses the altar in the middle, then at the right end, then at the left end, and continuing always his prayers he returns to the middle, where he again kisses the altar three times, in the middle, a little to the right and to the left; in his prayer he thanks God who has made him worthy, though a sinner, to administer these mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus ends this expressive ceremony of the approach to the altar. After it, in obedience to the Lord's command, the deacon proclaims: "Brethren, give one another the peace"; and while each places his hands in those of his neighbor, the diptychs of the living and the dead were read, in ancient times. Another admonition from the deacon and an incensation, and the priest removes the veil that covers the oblates and intones the great eucharistic prayer with the dialogue of the preface. This prayer is interrupted three times: first by the people, who sing the Sanctus; then, after the Consecration, by the deacon, who invites to prayer while the priest says the prayers of intercession; the third time again by the deacon, who admonishes the people to be attentive because the priest will say the epiclesis. Now the Communion is prepared. After incensing the hands that will perform the fraction, the priest (among Catholics only) elevates the Host, and after the fraction, the intinction and the communion, he elevates the chalice. In various prayers the people affirm their faith in Christ, God and Man, ask forgiveness for their sins, recite the Pater Noster and respond to the Sancta sanctis. Then Communion is given, among Catholics under one species, among the Nestorians under both. The prayers of thanksgiving and the blessing conclude the Mass. The Nestorians now consume the sacred species; the Catholics perform the ablutions after Communion.

It is worth noting that in the anaphora of the Apostles, of probably Mesopotamian structure and origin, the words of consecration are missing; this most serious lack is supplied by taking the text of one of the two other anaphoras, which derive — that of Nestorius perhaps from Byzantium, that of Theodore from Cilicia (cf. A. Raes, Le Récit de l'institution eucharistique dans l'anaphore chaldéenne et malabare des Apôtres, in Or. chr. periodica, 10 [1944], pp. 216-26).

BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION

Ìšò'jahb III reformed this rite and drew it up for children; but since, according to his Pelagian theory, children are exempt from every sin, even original sin, he suppressed in the baptismal rite the exorcisms and the solemn renunciation of the devil. In ancient times the rites of the catechumenate existed among the Nestorians (cf. W. de Vries, Zur Liturgie der Erwachsenentaufe bei den Nestorianern, in Or. chr. periodica, 9 [1943], pp. 460-73). The new rite has a structure similar to that of the Mass; thus, at the moment of the Offertory, instead of the bread and wine, the oil is brought to the altar and covered with a veil; this oil is blessed after the Sanctus with an epiclesis; the water is blessed after the Pater Noster, and after the Sancta sanctis the body of the person being baptized is anointed and immersed three times in the water; then the procession returns from the baptistery into the church, and the priest imposes his hands on the baptized person, and, marking him with his thumb, anoints him on the forehead: this is the twofold rite of Confirmation. In antiquity there then followed the third Sacrament of initiation, Communion.

PENANCE

The Nestorians do not seem to have known any other penitential rite than that of the reconciliation of an apostate or a heretic; the other one attributed to Ìšò'jahb III and published by H. J. Denzinger (Ritus Orientalium, II, Würzburg 1864, p. 467) certainly has a different purpose. For it to be a rite of private penance it lacks Confession and the whole liturgical part made up of prayers, psalms, prostrations, and acts of humility that precede it. Some influence of Latin private penance can be discerned in a recent rite, taken however by the Nestorians from the Jacobites (cf. J. Vosté, La confession chez les Nestoriens, in Angelicum, 7 [1930], pp. 17-26).

PRIESTLY ORDINATION

It has preserved its ancient structure. The ordinand first receives the tonsure and the insignia of the diaconate, then follows a long series of prayers, readings and chants. After this the ordinand kneels and covers his eyes with his hands, while the bishop recites the formula: "The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ...", and imposes his hands on the head of the ordinand, saying the two sacramental prayers; once he has risen, he clothes him in the tunic and the orarion, hands him back the book of the Gospels and makes the sign of the cross on his forehead. It ends with the kiss of peace. For the first edition of the pontifical, cf. J. Vosté, Actes du XXe Congrès intern. des Orientalistes, Brussels 1938, p. 340.

EXTREME UNCTION

The lengthy rite celebrated by several priests, and which is fundamentally the same in all the Eastern rites, does not seem ever to have penetrated among the Nestorians. In order to make up for this lack, the Catholic Chaldeans have drafted a rite of this Sacrament with an Eastern structure.

THE DIVINE OFFICE

It has only the three great hours, Vespers, Nocturn and Matins; sometimes Compline is added to Vespers; Catholic monks add the little hours taken from the Maronites. In the Nocturn a third part of the psalter is recited, so that on the six ferial days of the week the entire psalter is recited twice; in the other hours too the psalms constitute the fundamental part. The liturgical poetry, however, is rich, but the readings from Sacred Scripture are entirely lacking. It should be noted that even today the people regularly attend and participate every day in Vespers and Matins. For Catholics a Breviary was printed which has greatly reduced the length of the Night Office.

CALENDAR

The liturgical year is divided into periods generally of seven weeks each: Annunciation or Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Apostles, Summer, Elijah, the Cross, Moses, the Dedication. The feasts of the saints, called "memorials," are few, and are celebrated both on a fixed date of the year and on the Friday of such-and-such a week of a given period.

THE LITURGICAL BOOKS were published for Catholics in Rome and Milan, for the Nestorians, through the work of the Anglican mission, at Urmia; to the list of A. Baumstark, Liturgie comparée, in Frenikon, 1934, pp. 229-31, let there be added a missal published at Mosul in 1936 and a reprint edition of Bedjan's breviary in 3 vols. at Rome in 1938.

The translation into a European language of the liturgical texts is found in the general works of J. Assemani, Codex liturgicus, 13 vols., Rome 1749-66; of E. Renaudot, Liturgiaum orientalium collectio, Paris 1716; of Denzinger, op. cit.; of F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western, Oxford 1896. Let there be added: C. Moussess, La Messa caldea degli Apostoli, Rome 1948; D. Dahane, Liturgie de la Sainte Messe selon le rite chaldéen, Paris 1937; G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, 2 vols., London 1852; A. J. Maclean, East Syrian Daily Offices, ibid. 1894; id., The Evening, Night and Morning Services, complete text, with the feast of the Epiphany in Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum, Oxford 1905, pp. 298-388; P. Martin, Saint Pierre et saint Paul dans l'Eglise nestorienne, Paris 1875, complete text for the feast of the two Apostles.