Ignatius Andrew Akijan
Mar Ignatius Andrew 'Abdul-Ghal Akijan (or Akhidjan, Akidjian, 1622–1677) was the Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church from 1662 to 1677. His election as Patriarch marked the first separation of the hierarchy between the Syriac Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Life Andrew Akijan was born in 1622 in Mardin and soon came in contact with the Carmelites missionaries. He studied from 1649 in the Maronite College in Rome and after three years he returned in the East where he was ordained priest in 1652 by the Maronite Patriarch. In those years in Aleppo a number of Syriac Christians entered in full communion with the Catholic Church and formed the first Syrian Catholic community. They chose as their bishop Andrew Akijan who was consecrated bishop on 29 June 1656 by Maronite patriarch John Bawab of Safra, taking the name of Andrew. He took possession of his church on 9 August 1656. He suffered a strong and violent opposition by the Orthodox Syriacs that forced him to escape in Lebanon on 15 May 1657, from where he returned to Aleppo on 12 March 1658. His ministry as Syriac bishop of Aleppo was confirmed by the Pope on 28 January 1659.