Ignatius John XIV

Ignatius John XIV bar Shay Allah was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1483 until his death in 1493.

Biography Early life John was the son of Shay Allah, who was the son of Sad al-Din, also known as Ibn al-Asfar, and his family was originally from Bartulli, Iraq. Whilst at the monastery, John received a special education equal to that of Aziz, the nephew of Ignatius Khaleph of Maʿdan, Patriarch of Antioch, David bar Qashafo taught John astronomy and an anonymous tutor from Constantinople educated him in the use of the use of the astrolabe. After his ordination as bishop, John became Ignatius Khaleph's companion and adviser and was put in charge of his financial affairs. John extended his title to Bishop of Amid and Sawro, so named after the village of Sawro near the Monastery of Mor Abay, where he resided. As bishop, John immediately began to restore dilapidated churches and monasteries throughout his diocese, including the Monastery of Mor Abay. As well as this, John built an extension to the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Mardin, and ransomed eight Georgian captives enslaved by Turkish raids. John gifted the Georgians with horses and supplies to help them to return to Georgia.

As patriarch, John continued to build and restore churches and monasteries in the regions of Harput, Se'ert, Mardin, Amid, Nisibis and Mosul, such as the Church of Yoldath Aloho (Mother of God) in Harzam. The patriarch set out to restore a Syriac Orthodox church in the town of Nisibis, which had only three or four Syriac Orthodox households and was largely populated by Nestorians, adherents of a rival church known as the Church of the East. He initially excavated the Church of Mor Jacob with the intention of rebuilding it, but abandoned this effort, and rejected a suggestion to restore the Church of Mor Dimet in the outskirts of Nisibis, as it was too far from the centre. John was shown where the Church of Mor Batlo once stood in the town, and, satisfied by its location, had it excavated.

The Nestorians sent a delegation to the Emir of Mardin to protest the reconstruction of the Church of Mor Batlo and claimed there had not been a church there in the past, thus breaking Islamic law, and John was summoned to defend himself. John travelled from Nisibis to Mardin to answer the summons and, with the evidence of the foundations of the original church and the official permission of the qadis and faqihs of Nisibis, the allegations were dismissed and he returned to Nisibis. The Church of Mor Batlo was completed and rededicated as the Church of Mor Batlo and Yoldath Aloho following John's return. John cooperated with Baselius Aziz and the two stayed at the church prior to its consecration. Whilst at the church, John received an apparition of Mor Batlo in a dream who indicated the location of his remains and, in the following morning, John and Baselius Aziz dug at the indicated place and discovered the remains of Mor Batlo. John had a chapel built on the location and connected it to the church. He also appointed a bishop of Nisibis to minister to the Syriac Orthodox population of the town. John's efforts in Nisibis were largely symbolic and were seen as the reclamation of their heritage. This is because the town of Nisibis was the diocese of Jacob of Nisibis, a highly venerated saint in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and thus to appoint a Syriac Orthodox bishop was to reclaim the town from the Nestorians.

Baselius Aziz died shortly after the consecration of the Church of Mor Balto and Yoldath Aloho in 1487 and fear of Nestorian attacks in Mosul led John to travel to the city and restore the nearby Monastery of Mor Behnam. It was alleged that John was poisoned in 1493 by Joshua, Bishop of Sawro, who would later become patriarch in 1509.