Elias Mellus

Who was Elias Mellus?

Mar Yohannan Elias Mellus was a Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Elias Mellus was born on September 19, 1831 in Mardin. He entered in the monastery of Rabban Hormizd in Alqosh. On September 21, 1856 he was ordained priest and on June 5, 1864 he was ordained bishop Aqra by Patriarch Joseph VI Audo.

He worked from 1874 to 1882 in the Indian city of Thrissur. On behalf of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Joseph VI Audo, he looked in vain for the reunification of the Catholic faction of Thomas Christians called Syro-Malabar with their sister church, namely the "Patriarchate of Babylon" as the Catholic successor to the ancient catholicate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

The experiment resulted in a schism: some of the followers of Mellus left the Chaldean Catholic Church and joined the Assyrian Church of the East in 1907/09. This group gained more than regional significance. In 1968 their Metropolitan, Mar Thomas Darmo, opposed Assyrian Patriarch Mar Shimun XXIII and formed Ancient Church of the East.

In 1882 Mar Elias Mellus was suspended by his office of bishop and returned to Mosul. After some hesitation he fully reentered in the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1890 and was appointed bishop of Mardin, where he died on February 16, 1908. He wrote a "History of Oriental Chaldean Church".