Commemoration of Mar Shimun Benyamin the Martyr

Culture of origin: Assyrian · Historical

Holiday sources: Assyrian

Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin (1887–1918) was Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East from 1903; his church's Western Europe calendar numbers him XXI and keeps him as "the Martyr" on the Sunday eight weeks before Easter (4 February 2024, 23 February 2025, 8 February 2026). In March 1918 he met the Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak at Kohneshahr in Salmas to discuss an alliance. As he was leaving, Simko's men, hidden on the roof, opened fire and killed him and 150 of his armed guards; others put the toll at 75. The killing was probably instigated by Persian officials who feared Assyrian separatism. The date is given as 16 March (18 March in another account).