GIUSEPPE I. - Chaldean patriarch from 1681 to 1696. He was first Nestorian bishop of Dijarbekir (Amida), whose clergy in 1650 had passed from the Catholic Chaldean patriarchate to the Nestorian one. In 1672 G. was converted to Catholicism by Capuchin missionaries, and in 1675 he went to Rome, where he remained until 1677.
In order to maintain himself against the Nestorian patriarch, on whom he depended according to civil law, he needed the title of patriarch, which was in fact granted him by the Turkish government. Since, in the meantime, the Catholic Chaldean patriarch Simeone XIII had passed to Nestorianism, the Holy See conferred upon G. on 8 Jan. 1681 the title of patriarch (though not that of “Babylon”). Because of his frail health, weakened by tribulations and persecutions, G. withdrew to Rome and submitted his resignation. On 18 June 1696 the Holy See appointed his coadjutor Giuseppe Slibà as his successor; G. died in 1707.