The Articles Of The Bishop Of Uramiah,
On The Creator, Holy Books And Prophets
Biography Of Professor David Benjamin Keldani, B.D. (died
1940c) Former Roman Catholic Bishop of the Uniate Chaldean
Abdu’l-Ahad Dawud is the former Rev. David Abdu Benjamin Keldani, B.D., a
Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect. He was born in 1867 at Urmia
in Persia; educated from his early infancy in that town. From 1886-89 he was on
the teaching staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian
(Nestorian) Christians at Urmia. In 1892 he was sent by Cardinal Vaughan to
Rome, where he underwent a course of philosophical and theological studies at
the Propaganda Fide College, and in 1895 was ordained Priest. In 1892 Professor
Dawud contributed a series of articles to The Tablet on "Assyria, Rome and
Canterbury"; and also to the Irish Record on the "Authenticity of the
Pentateuch." He has several translations of the Ave Maria in different
languages, published in the illustrated Catholic Missions. While in
Constantinople on his way to Persia in 1895, he contributed a long series of
articles in English and French to the daily paper, published there under the
name of The Levant Herald, on "Eastern Churches." In 1895 he joined the French
Lazarist Mission at Urmia, and published for the first time in the history of
that Mission a periodical in the vernacular Syriac called Qala-La-Shara, i.e.
"The Voice of Truth." In 1897 he was delegated by two Uniate-Chaldean Arch-
bishops of Urmia and of Salmas to represent the Eastern Catholics at the
Eucharistic Congress held at Paray-le-Monial in France under the presidency of
Cardinal Perraud. This was, of course, an official invitation. The paper read at
the Congress by "Father Benjamin" was published in the Annals of the Eucharistic
Congress, called "Le Pellerin" of that year. In this paper, the Chaldean
Arch-Priest (that being his official title) deplored the Catholic system of
education among the Nestorians.
In 1888 Father Benjamin was back again in Persia. In his native village,
Digala, about a mile from the town, he opened a school. The next year he was
sent by the Ecclesiastical authorities to take charge of the diocese of Salmas,
where a sharp and scandalous conflict between the Uniate Archbishop, Khudabash,
and the Lazarist Fathers for a long time had been menacing a schism. On the day
of New Year 1900, Father Benjamin preached his last and memorable sermon to a
large congregation, including many non-Catholic Armenians and others in the
Cathedral of St. George’s Khorovabad, Salmas. The preacher’s subject was "New
Century and New Men." He recalled the fact that the Nestorian Missionaries,
before the appearance of Islam, namely "submission" to God, had preached the
Gospel in all Asia; that they had numerous establishments in India (especially
at the Malabar Coast), in Tartary, China and Mongolia; and that they translated
the Gospel to the Turkish Uighurs and in other languages; that the Catholic,
American and Anglican Missions, in spite of the little good they had done to the
Assyro- Chaldean nation in the way of preliminary education, had split the
nation – already a handful in Persia, Kurdistan and Mesopotamia into numerous
hostile sects; and that their efforts were destined to bring about the final
collapse. Con- sequently he advised the natives to make some sacrifices in order
to stand upon their own legs like men, and not to depend upon the foreign
missions, etc.
The preacher was perfectly right in principle; but his remarks were
unfavorable to the interests of the Lord’s Missionaries. This sermon hastily
brought the Apostolique Delegate, Mgr. Lesne, from Urmia to Salmas. He remained
to the last a friend of Father Benjamin. They both returned to Urmia. A new
Russian Mission had already been estab- lished in Urmia since 1899. The
Nestorians were enthu- siastically embracing the religion of the "holy" Tsar of
All Russias!
Five big and ostentatious missions, Americans, Anglicans, French, Germans and
Russians with their colleges, press backed up by rich religious societies,
Consuls and Ambassadors, were endeavoring to convert about one hundred thousand
Assyro-Chaldeans from Nestorian heresy unto one or another of the five heresies.
But the Russian Mission soon outstripped the others, and it was this mission
which in 1915 pushed or forced the Assyrians of Persia, as well as the
mountaineer tribes of Kurdistan, who had then immigrated into the plains of
Salmas and Urmia, to take up arms against their respective Governments. The
result was that half of his people perished in the war and the rest expelled
from their native lands.
The great question which for a long time had been working its solution in the
mind of this priest was now approaching its climax. Was Christianity, with all
its multi- tudinous shapes and colors, and with its unauthentic, spurious and
corrupted Scriptures, the true Religion of God? In the summer of 1900 he retired
to his small villa in the middle of vineyards near the celebrated fountain of
Chali- Boulaghi in Digala, and there for a month spent his time in prayer and
meditation, reading over and over the Scriptures in their original texts. The
crisis ended in a formal resigna- tion sent in to the Uniate Archbishop of Urmia,
in which he frankly explained to (Mgr.) Touma Audu the reasons for abandoning
his sacerdotal functions. All attempts made by the ecclesiastical authorities to
withdraw his decision were of no avail. There was no personal quarrel or dispute
between Father Benjamin and his superiors; it was all ques- tion of conscience.
For several months Mr. Dawud, as he was now called, was employed in Tabriz as
Inspector in the Persian Service of Posts and Customs under the Belgian experts.
Then he was taken into the service of the Crown Prince Muhammad ‘Ali Mirza as
teacher and translator. It was in 1903 that he again visited England and there
joined the Unitarian Community. And in 1904 he was sent by the British and
Foreign Unitarian Association to carry on an educational and enlightening work
among his country people. On his way to Persia he visited Constantinople; and
after several interviews with the Sheikhu ‘I-Islam Jemalu ‘d-Din Effendi and
other Ulemas, he embraced the Holy Religion of Islam, meaning submission to God.