Church Syriac Orthodox Church See Antioch Successor Ignatius Isaac Azar | Installed 1687 Name Ignatius II Term ended 1708 | |
Predecessor Ignatius Abdul Masih I | ||
Ignatius George II (1648 – 6 June, 1708) was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1687 until his death in 1708.
Biography
George was born in the city of Mosul in 1648, into a family known for producing high ranking clerics within the church. George became a monk at the Monastery of Mar Mattai where he was ordained priest in 1669. In 1677, he was ordained bishop of Gazarta by the maphrian Baselios Yeldho, upon which he took the name Dioscorus.
Upon the resignation of Baselios Yeldho, George was ordained maphrian by the patriarch, Ignatius Abdul Masih I, in 1684 and assumed the name Baselios. After the death of the patriarch, Ignatius Abdul Masih I, George was unanimously chosen to succeed him and was consecrated at the Church of the Forty Martyrs, Mardin on 23 April 1687. Later that year he ordained his successor, Baselios Isaac II as maphrian.
During his tenure as patriarch, George worked towards reclaiming churches and monasteries that once belonged to the church and preserving the property of the church. This can be seen in the reconstruction of the Monastery of Mor Hananyo and the renovation of churches throughout Upper Mesopotamia and Mosul. He also built two new churches in the cities of Hisn Mansur and Zakho. Before his death in 1708, George ordained twenty metropolitans and bishops.