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H.H. Patriarch Zakka I Iwas

Zakka Iwas (Arabic: زكى عيواص, Zakkà ‘Īwāṣ) is the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church. The patriarchate is based in Damascus. As is traditional for the head of the church, he has adopted the name Ignatius. Being the first patriarch to be named Zakka, his name is often written as Ignatius Zakka I Iwas. His full titulary is:

Syriac: ܩܕܝܫܘܬܗ ܡܪܢ ܡܪܝ ܐܝܓܢܐܛܝܘܣ ܙܟܝ ܩܕܡܝܐ ܥܝܘܐܨ܃ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ

transliteration: Qaddîšûṯeh Moran Mor Îgnaṭyûs Zakkay Qaḏmoyo ʿÎwaṣ, Paṭryarḵo d-Anṭyuḵya

English: His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church

Sanharib Iwas was born on 21 April 1932 in Mosul, Iraq. He attended St Thomas Syriac Orthodox Church School in the city, and, at the age of fourteen, began his theological studies in the city's Mor Ephrem seminary. At the seminary, his birth name, Sanharib (adopted from the ancient Assyrian King Sennacherib) , was replaced by the name Zakka. Whilst there, in 1947, he took monastic vows and was ordained deacon. Zakka Iwas left Mosul in 1954 to become secretary to the patriarchs Afram Barsoum and then Ya`qub III. On 17 November 1957, the latter ordained him priest, and, two years later, gave him the pectoral cross as rabban.

In 1960, Zakka Iwas pursued further study in New York. There he completed a master's degree in English at City University, and a further master's in pastoral theology at the General Theological Seminary. In 1962 and 1963, he was delegated by the patriarch as observer at Second Vatican Council.

On 17 November 1963, Zakka Iwas was ordained, by Patriarch Ignatius Jacob III, as Metropolitan of Mosul. As is the tradition in the church, he took an episcopal name, Mor Severius. The next year, during renovation work on the sancturary wall of the metropolitan church in Mosul, what were reputed to be the remains of the Apostle Thomas were found. In 1969, Mor Severius Zakka was transferred to be Archbishop of Baghdad and Basra.

Following the death of Patriarch Ignatius Jacob III in 1980, Zakka Iwas was elected by the synod of the church to be the 122nd Syriac Patriarch of Antioch. He was enthroned as patriarch on 14 September, the feast of the Cross, by Basileus Paulose II, Catholicos of the East, in the patriarchal cathedral in Damascus. As Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I, he has been involved in ecumenical dialogue, and is a president of the World Council of Churches. He has also established a new monastic seminary, Dayro d-Mor Afrem, at Saidnaya, near Damascus. On 14 September 2005, celebrations were held for his Silver Jubilee.

• Jacob Baradaeus
• List of Patriarchs of Antioch - to 518
• List of Syriac Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch - list from 518
• Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church
• Mor Julius Isa Cicek
• Ignatius Afram I Barsoum
• Ignatius Jacob III
• Ignatius Elias III
• Polycarpus Eugene (Augin) Aydin

• Biography from Margonitho: Syriac Orthodox Resources
• Biography from Syriac Orthodox in Australia
• Biography of the Holy father prepared by John Philip Kottapparambil