Pope receives Assyrian Patriarch, adds St. Isaac of Nineveh to Roman Martyrology
November 11, 2024
Pope Francis received Mar Awa III, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East (CNEWA profile), on November 9 to commemorate the anniversary of two ecumenical milestones: the 30th anniversary of a common Christological declaration and the 40th anniversary of the first visit of an Assyrian Patriarch to Rome.
“Theological dialogue is indispensable in our journey towards unity, since the unity we yearn for is unity in faith, while the dialogue of truth must never be separated from the dialogue of charity and the dialogue of life,” Pope Francis said, as he praised the work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East. “That unity in faith has already been achieved by the saints of our Churches.”
“I am pleased to announce that the great Isaac of Nineveh, one of the most venerated Fathers of the Syro-Oriental tradition, acknowledged as a teacher and a saint by all traditions, will be added to the Roman Martyrology,” the Pontiff added.
St. Isaac of Nineveh, who died around the year 700, lived in modern-day Iraq and Iran. The Roman Martyrology includes the list of saints and blesseds commemorated in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published the first postconciliar edition of the Roman Martyrology in 2001 and a revised edition in 2004. An English translation of this Latin-language text is in preparation, the US bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship said in a 2022 newsletter.
The Assyrian Church of the East ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) and is now headquartered in Ankawa, Iraq; the Chaldean Catholic Church is its Eastern Catholic counterpart. A native of Chicago, Mar Awa was educated at three Catholic institutions: Loyola University Chicago, the University of St. Mary of the Lake (Mundelein, Illinois), and the Pontifical Oriental Institute.
The addition of St. Isaac of Nineveh to the Roman Martyrology came 18 months after Pope Francis added to the Martyrology 21 Coptic Orthodox martyrs slain by ISIS. The subsequent publication of Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, dealt a significant blow to ecumenical relations with the Coptic Orthodox Church.
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