Eliya XII

Predesignated for the ecclesiastical career, as nephew of patriarch Eliya XI, he was appointed metropolitan in 1744, and became presumptive successor (natar kursya) of the patriarchal throne.{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=196, 511}} His initial name was Ishoyahb (Īshō'yahb), but upon assuming the patriarchal throne in 1778 he took the traditional name Eliya. His cousin and long-time rival Yohannan Hormizd later claimed that in the spring of 1776, patriarch Eliya XI dismissed Ishoyahb and appointed him (Yohannan) as metropolitan and designated successor,{{sfn|Badger|1852|p=150-151}} but later scholarly research of primary sources, including those from 1777, showed that Ishoyahb was still serving as metropolitan and patriarchal successor.{{sfn|Vosté|1939|p=387}}{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=196, 525}}

As the new patriarch, since 1778, Eliya XII was faced with several complex problems, inherited from his predecessors. Long rivalry between two coexisting traditionalist patriarchal branches, the senior Eliya line of Alqosh and the junior Shimun line of Qochanis, represented a major obstacle for the consolidation of the Church of the East. Both patriarchs, Eliya XII of the senior line, and his rival Shimun XVI of the junior line, had their own hierarchies, that continued to assert their separate jurisdictions over the same flock, thus prolonging internal divisions. In the same time, both sides were faced with additional challenges, caused by the ever-worsening position of local Christian communities in frontier war-torn regions between two mighty empires (Ottoman and Persian).{{sfn|Murre van den Berg|1999b|p=34}}{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=196, 250-251}}{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|p=120}}

In order to overcome the division between two traditionalist patriarchal lines, one side had to make concessions. Already in 1784, Eliya XII appointed his nephew Hananisho (d. 1813) as metropolitan of Amadiya, thus intending to secure the future patriarchal succession in his family. During the following years, metropolitan Hananisho demonstrated some pro-Catholic tendencies, but they were not accepted as sincere by Rome, thus leading Hananisho to take the opposite, contra-Catholic stance.{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=106, 128-129, 196}}{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|p=120}}

By the end of the patriarchal tenure of Eliya XII, the question of succession remained unresolved. He died in 1804, and was buried in the Rabban Hormizd Monastery.{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=30, 263-264}}{{sfn|Harrak|2003|p=301-302}} His branch decided not to elect a new patriarch, thus breaking the long-standing practice, and eventually enabling the patriarch Shimun XVI Yohannan (1780–1820) of the junior line to become the sole primate of the entire traditionalist community.{{sfn|Spuler|1961|p=165}}{{sfn|Ebied|1972|p=511}}{{sfn|Murre van den Berg|1999b|p=35}}{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|p=120}}{{sfn|Hage|2007|p=302, 400}}

During his tenure, Eliya XII was faced with additional challenges, represented by a growing pro-Catholic movement. In 1780, a group seceded from his jurisdiction and elected his young cousin Yohannan Hormizd (b. 1760) as their leader. That group entered into communion with the Catholic Church. In 1783, Yohannan Hormizd was appointed by Rome as new Eastern-Catholic Archbishop of Mosul and patriarchal administrator of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Learning of the death of Eliya XII in 1804, pro-Catholic parties aimed to take over the ancient Rabban Hormizd Monastery, and eventually succeeded, firstly in 1808, and finally in 1813, thus asserting Eastern-Catholic jurisdiction over that ancient monastic institution, that was the main patriarchal residence since the 15th century.{{sfn|Wilmshurst|2000|p=128-129, 259, 264}}{{sfn|Baum|Winkler|2003|p=120, 122}}

• Patriarch of the Church of the East
• List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East
• List of Patriarchs of the Assyrian Church of the East
• Assyrian Church of the East

{{Reflist|2}}

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{{refend}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-rel|Church of the East titles}}

{{succession box

|before=Eliya XI
(1722–1778)

|title=Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East
Eliya line (Alqosh)

|years=(1778–1804)

|after=Line Ended
Shimun XVI Yohannan left as sole Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East

}}

{{succession box

|before= Eliya XI
(1722–1778)

|title=Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East

|years=1804 – 1820

|after=Shimun XVI Yohannan

}}

{{s-end}}

{{Patriarchs of the Church of the East}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eliya 12}}

Category:Patriarchs of the Church of the East

Category:18th-century bishops of the Church of the East

Category:1804 deaths

Category:Year of birth missing

Category:Assyrians from the Ottoman Empire

Category:18th-century archbishops

Category:19th-century bishops of the Assyrian Church of the East

Category:19th-century archbishops

Category:18th-century clergy from the Ottoman Empire

Category:19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire

Category:Bishops in the Ottoman Empire