Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch)


Mar Yousip I was the first incumbent of the Josephite line of Church of the East, thus being considered the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1681 to 1696.

Background situation

By 1660, the Church of the East had become divided into two patriarchates:
Although the town of Amid in 1553 has been the See of Yohanan Shimun VIII Sulaqa, the area of influence of the Shimun patriarchs moved soon eastward, and by 1660 the area of Amid was under the Alqosh's patriarchate. In 1667 the Capuchin missionary Jean-Baptiste de St-Aignan established there, teaching to omit the liturgical commemoration of Nestorius and to use the title Mother of God for Saint Mary.
Yousip was born in Amid and educated by the priest 'Abd Al-Ahad. He was consecrated metropolitan bishop of Amid between 1669 and 1672, and shortly after in 1672 became Catholic. The reaction of Alqosh's patriarch Eliya X Yukhannan Maraugin was very strong: he came personally to Amid, installed a traditionalist bishop named David and had Joseph to be twice imprisoned. Joseph was released only after payment of a ransom and had to leave for Rome. When Joseph returned in 1677, the bishop David fled to Egypt and the Ottoman authorities recognized Joseph's independence and his government over the dioceses of Amid and Mardin.
On June 23, 1681, arrived the formal recognition from Rome with the delivery of the pallium and the granting of the title "Patriarch of the Chaldean nation deprived of its patriarch". Thus into the Church of the East began a new patriarchal line in full communion with Rome.
Falling ill, in August 1694 Joseph I left Amid for Rome, and formally abdicated in 1696. He died in Rome on Nov. 10, 1707.
The life of Mar Yousip I is mainly known by his biography written in the early 18th century by 'Adb Al-Ahad son of Garabet and later translated into French in 1898 by J.P. Chabot.