Mar Shimun XXI Benyamin

Mar Shimun XXI Benyamin (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܒܢܝܡܝܢ ܫܡܥܘܢ ܥܣܪܝܢ ܘܩܕܡܝܐ) was a Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. He was born in 1887 in the village of Qochanis in the Hakkari Province, Ottoman Empire (modern-day southeastern Turkey). He was consecrated a Metropolitan on March 1, 1903 by Mar Rowil, the Catholicos Patriarch who died on March 16, 1903. He succeeded his predecessor at the age of eighteen and occupied the patriarchal See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon at Qudchanis for 15 years. In March, 1918, Mar Benyamin along with 150 of his bodyguards were assassinated by Simko (Ismail Agha Shikak), a kurdish agha, in the town of Kuhnashahir (Persia) under a truce flag (see Assyrian Genocide).

Quotes

 * "It is impossible for me and my people to surrender after seeing the atrocities done to my Assyrian people by your government; therefore my brother is one, my people are many, I would rather lose my brother but not my nation."