Archeparchy of Baghdad (Babilonia)
Eastern metropolitan see · Chaldean Catholic Church · Baghdad (Babilonia), Iraq
Patriarchal see of the Chaldean Catholic Church, erected as the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans in 1553 and transferred over the centuries from Diyarbakir via Mosul to Baghdad; the title was renamed Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad in 2021. Its seat is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows in Baghdad; in April 2026 the synod elected Patriarch Mar Paul III Nona, succeeding Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako.
The see
- Rank
- Eastern metropolitan see
- Tradition
- Chaldean Catholic Church
- Erected
- 1553
- Annuario code
- 001000785
The see in figures
- Catholics
- 284,393
Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.
The bishop
- Patriarch
- His Beatitude Mar Paul III Nona
A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.
The cathedral
Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad stands in Baghdad (Babilonia), the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.
On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.
The province of Chaldean Patriarchate of Baghdad
This see is the metropolitan of its province.
On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.
History
The primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church bears the official title of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, often called simply the Chaldean Patriarchate (Latin: Patriarchatus Chaldæorum). Its home is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows in Baghdad, Iraq. Mar Paul III Nona currently holds the patriarchal see, assisted by Shlemon Warduni, archbishop of Erbil, and by Basel Yaldo, Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad. Among the Assyrians of Iraq, an indigenous people of Upper Mesopotamia, Chaldean Catholics form the majority.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
The see's own website · Wikipedia
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].