Ignatius Isaac Azar

Ignatius Isaac Azar (1647 – 18 July, 1724) was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1709 until his resignation in 1722.

Isaac was born in 1647 in the city of Mosul, son of Maqdisi ‘Azar and Maryam. At the age of twenty-two, he joined the Monastery of Mar Mattai where he was ordained priest by his tutor, the Maphrian Mor Baselios Habeeb II. During this time, Isaac helped to renovate the monastery and in 1675 he became abbot of the monastery.

In early 1684, Isaac was ordained metropolitan bishop of the monastery by Patriarch Ignatius Abdul Masih I at the Monastery of Mor Hananyo, upon which he took the name Severus. Three years later, Isaac was elevated to maphrian by his uncle, Ignatius George II, in Mardin where he assumed the name Baselios. As maphrian, Isaac ordained several bishops as well as many other presbyters, deacons and monks.

After the death of the patriarch in 1708, a synod was held the following year, in Amid to decide the new patriarch and Isaac was unanimously chosen. Isaac travelled to Amid where he received the certificate of investiture from the Ottoman Sultan and was proclaimed patriarch and assumed the name Ignatius on 8 February. Later that year, Isaac ordained Baselios Lazarus III as maphrian.

In 1722, Isaac resigned as patriarch due to his old age and on 20 July 1723 a synod proclaimed Isaac's disciple, Dionysius Shukr Allah Sani’a as his successor. He then travelled to Mosul where he died on 18 July 1724. He was buried in the Church of the Apostle Mar Tuma.