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St. Elijah was born to the Corbishop Abraham and his wife Maryam in Mardin (modern day Turkey) in 1867 and was [[baptism|baptized]] Nasri. Following the death of his mother, Nasri was raised by his older sister Helena. As a teen, Nasri worked as a goldsmith and also for the local government. He later entered a [[seminary]] at the direction of Patriarch Mor Ignatius [[Peter IV of Antioch]] and, in 1887, joined Dayro d'Mor Hananyo near Mardin. He was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]] by Patriarch Mor Ignatius Peter. Two years later he was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] with the name of Elijah. In 1892, Patriarch Mor Ignatius Peter ordained Dn. Elias to the [[priest]]hood.
During the time of the Sayfo (the 'Sword') Armenian Genocide in the late 19th century when the Ottoman Turks and Kurds were massacring Armenians and Syrians in western Armenia (now eastern Turkey) and upper Mesopotamia(now southeastern Turkey), Fr. Elias endeared himself to the Armenian community in his area by providing refuge to some 7,000 Armenian refugees in Dayro d'Mor Kyriakos. Because of this and his faithful service to the Church, Fr. Elias was later made [[abbot]] of both Dayro d'Mor Hananyo and Dayro d'Mor Kyriakos.
==Episcopacy and patriarchate==
In 1908, Fr. Elijah was elected and consecrated Metropolitan Mor Iwanios Elias of Amida (the Turkish city of modern Diyarbakir) by Patriarch Mor [[Ignatius Abdallah II of Antioch]]. Four years later he was transferred to the [[Archdiocese]] of Nineveh (Iraqi Mosulin modern day Iraq), where he remained until his election to the patriarchate in 1917 following the repose of Patriarch Mor Ignatius Abdallah II. Patriarch Mor Ignatius Elias III's election was confirmed by Sultan Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire during his visit to Constantinople in 1919.
Following the second half of the Sayfo ('Sword') in the 1910s and the outbreak of civil war in the Ottoman Empire in 1922 PatrSt. Elijah was forced to flee Dayro d'Mor Hananyo in Mardin, which had served as the seat of the patriarchs of Antioch for centuries. After leaving Mardin he spent several months in Jerusalem, where he established a printing press, and also in Aleppo and Mosul. In 1930, he presided over a meeting of the [[Holy Synod]] at Dayro d'Mor Mattai near Mosul that structured the organization of the Patriarchate.
==Visit to India and reposeRepose==
In late 1930 Mor Ignatios Elias was contacted by the British Viceroy of India, who requested that he come to India to negotiate an end to the [[schism]] dividing the Malankara Orthodox Church. Despite his health problems the [[patriarch]] accepted the invitation and left for India in early 1931, saying to those trying to persuade him not to go that, "Death is inevitable whether here or in India; I would rather sacrifice my life for the sake of our children in Malankara."
[[Category:Non-Chalcedonian Saints]]
[[Category:Oriental Orthodox]]
[[Category:Orthodoxy and Islam]]
[[Category:Patriarchs of Antioch]]
[[Category:Syrian Saints]]
