The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-07-16
FIVE BISHOPS MURDERED.

Rev. j. Naayem, in his book, Shall
this Nation Die?" tells of his suffer
ings from the Turks. He describes the
assassination of his people, the Assyro.
Chaldeans, and of distinguished prel-
ates. He says:
The unspeakable Turks have not
spared the bishops and archbishops.
Six of these were cruelty and ignomin-
iously butchered to death. The follow.
ing examples will suffice to give an
idea of the inhuman cruelty of these
bloodthirsty Turks:
The Archbishop of Sairt, who was a
very learned and highly respected man.
after witnessing the loot of his town
and the 80 villages attached to it.
was forced to seek the hospitality of a
Kurdish Agha, who came in disguise
and took him to his own village. Hear.
ing of this, the Turkish governor
sought the Kurd and one day Turkish
soldiers burst into the village forcing
the Agha to surrender the Archbishop.
They then took him to an isolated To-
cality and dug his grave in his pres
ence. In the meantime they subjected
him to system of primitive torture.
The soldiery spat in his face and beat
him amidst shower of blasphemy.
All the while the holy man kept in
voking the aid of Jesus and His Bless
ed Mother, despite the sufferings he
had to bear. He was then shot and
buried in that pit. His head was sub
seQuently cut off and carried to the
governor, amidst the jeers of the Turk
ish inhabitants. -....
been converted from the HISTORIAN to
the Catholic faith, was likewise done
to death in the town of Sairt. The
Archbishop's secretary, Rev. Gabriel
Adamo, was stripped of his clothes
and dashed cruelty amidst the jeers of
the crowd. A bonfire was then lighted
and he was forced to sit upon it.
The Bishop of Gezira, after he was
robbed of all his personal and eccle-
siastical belongings, and after all his
flock had been deported and butchered,
was told to order his adherents to
give up their arms to the Turkish gov
eminent. This was a ruse invented
by the cunning Turks, for the Chris
tians kept no arms. AS it was impos-
sible to produce any arms, the Bishop
was summoned to court and beaten in
the face by the Turkish officials in the
presence of all present. He was then
forced to lie PROSTATE on the floor and
was kicked and dashed. He was then
shot and his body hanged on a tree
which stood on the bank of the
Euphrates.
The Bishop of Urmia, after having
suffered the cruelty of seeing hundreds
of his flock carried into deportation
and butchered, was himself taken and
thrown into dungeon and underwent
the usual rack of the Turkish officials.
At last he was shot in the face. He
was left in the street until he breathed
his last. ~
The Bishop of Hakkiari, who man.
aged to escape persecution, was sur
rounded while on the top of noun.
tain, together with his valiant band of
Assyro- Chaldeans, and starved to
death.
Such is the fate suffered by eminent
churchmen, not to speak of the dozens
of other less eminent ecclesiastics who
suffered tortures and death. And of
the more than 100000 men, women and
children who suffered deportation, and
were cruelty murdered, there is yet to
be written heartrending episode in
the history of persecution.