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.
