HORMIZD, RABBĀN. – Nestorian monk of the seventh century, founder of the monastery near Alkōš (the region of Mossul) that bears his name, where monastic life flourished for a long time. But during the period of the decline of the Nestorian Church (from the fourteenth century onward), the monastery fell into ruin. Monasticism there was revived and given new life through the work of the zealous Catholic Gabriele Dembō, who took up residence there in 1808 and founded the Congregation of S. Hormizd (a martyr of the fourth century, commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 8 August).
BIBL.: E. A. Wallis Budge, The histories of Rabban H. the Persian and Rabban Bar-'Idta, in Luzac's Semitic text and translation series, IX-XI, London 1902; St. Bello, La Congregation de St Hormizdas et l'Église chaldéenne dans la première moitié du XIXᵉ siècle, Rome 1939.