Yohannan VIII Hormizd - Early Life

Early Life

According to his autobiography, Yohannan Hormizd was born in 1760 in Alqosh. His father, the deacon Hanna (Yohannan), was the brother of the Mosul patriarch Eliya XII Denha (1722–78).

The Vatican opened a correspondence with both the Mosul and Qochanis patriarchs in 1770. At this period hereditary succession (normally from uncle to nephew as the patriarchs themselves remained celibate) was in force in both patriarchates. Eliya XII Denha had consecrated his nephew Ishoʿyahb a metropolitan in 1745 and had also bestowed upon him the traditional title natar kursya ('guardian of the throne'), thereby designating him his presumptive successor. Eliya XII and his nephew Ishoʿyahb both made Catholic professions of faith in 1771 in response to this overture from the Vatican, and Pope Clement XIV wrote to Eliya on 12 December 1772 to commend his zeal and to urge him to bring over his people to Catholicism. Earlier in the same year, however, Eliya had deposed Ishoʿyahb from his metropolitan rank, apparently alarmed by his ambition, and ordained the twelve-year-old Yohannan Hormizd, another nephew, as a deacon. Four years later, on 22 May 1776, Yohannan was consecrated a metropolitan by Eliya XII Denha and named natar kursya in his turn. If his uncle had lived a few years longer, Yohannan's succession would probably have been assured, but the patriarch was among the victims of a plague which swept through the Mosul district in 1778, and died in the village of Alqosh on 29 April 1778.