Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa

Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon
Church	Chaldean Catholic Church
See	Amid of the Chaldeans
Installed	28 April 1553
Term ended	January 1555
Successor	Abdisho IV Maron
Personal details
Birth name	Yohannan Sulaqa
Born	Circa 1510 Mosul
Died	January 1555 Amadiya
Residence	Amid, Ottoman Empire (now Diyarbakır, Turkey)

Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa (Syriac: ܫܡܥܘܢ ܬܡܝܢܝܐ ܝܘܚܢܢ ܣܘܠܩܐ‎; also John Soulaqa, Sulaka or Sulacha, circa 1510–1555) was the first Patriarch of what was to become the Chaldean Catholic Church, from 1553 to 1555, after it broke from the Church of the East into full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church.

Yohannan Sulaqa's ascension as Patriarch was part of the 1552 schism in the Church of the East which resulted in the establishment of rival patriarchates and ultimately a permanent rift in the Church of the East. He was elected by those who opposed the hereditary patriarchal succession within the Eliya family, and he took an unprecedented step in the Church of the East: he traveled to Rome, accepted the Catholic creed and was consecrated as Patriarch in 1553, after at first failing in an attempt to join the Syriac Orthodox Church. His reign did not last long though: Upon his return, due to strong opposition by the opposing Patriarch, Sulaqa was imprisoned by the Ottoman leader of Amadiya, tortured, and executed in January 1555. He is considered a martyr of the Catholic Church.

Up until the Schism of 1552, the Church of the East was united in a single patriarchate and the episcopal see was located in the ancient city of Alqosh. However, In the 15th century the Patriarch Shimun IV Basidi (1437–1493) made the office hereditary in his own family, the Eliya line.

This was made possible through the ancient canon law of the Church of the East, which decreed that only metropolitan bishops could confirm a patriarch. As a result, Shimun IV and his successor only appointed their family members as metropolitan bishops, in order for the uncle to choose his brothers or nephews to succeed him as patriarch. This designated successor, once consecrated as metropolitan bishop with right of succession, was called natar kursi.

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