Mardin - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, p. 59

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MARDIN. - A city located in south-eastern Turkey in the region called Tûr 'Abdîn, which comes under the following ecclesiastical jurisdictions:

1. Diocese of the Syrians, which has had Catholic bishops since 1888, today proper to the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch.

Article illustration — (phot. Alinari) MARCONI, ROCCO - L'adultera - Venice, Library of the Royal Palace.

Its territory extends partly under Turkish rule and partly in Syria. It has 8,600 faithful, 6 staffed parishes, 26 priests, 9 chapels, and 13 schools.

2. Diocese of the Armenians. There has been a Catholic bishop here since 1708. The current one, due to difficulties arising from Turkish legislation, resides in Baghdad. The diocese has 5 parishes, 3 churches, 7 priests, and 2,900 faithful.

3. Diocese of the Chaldeans, since 1553. Today it is ruined and without a bishop due to Turkish policy. There remain 1 church, 1 priest, and 400 faithful.

4. Mission. Bishop Egamaon, converted from Nestorianism and having become in 1683 Chaldean bishop of M., invited the Capuchins to the city.

This first Capuchin mission lasted until 1800, the year the last missionary died: Fr. Ignazio. The mission was resumed by the same Order in 1842. The Capuchins worked there with great zeal and success in the care of souls among the Jacobites, Nestorians, and Armenians, maintaining a school for boys, while the Franciscan nuns ran one for girls. The mission was destroyed during the 1914–18 war.

BIBL.: Clemente da Terzorio, Le missioni dei Minori Cappuccini, VI, Turchia asiatica, Rome 1920, pp. 146 ff., 224 ff.; Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 264. Guglielmo de Vries