[2] The early death of his mother made him concentrate on ascetic life and he joined the Dominican Seminar in Mosul in 1880 where he studied Syriac, Arabic, French, Latin and Turkish as well as theology and philosophy.

[2] He was later appointed as a bishopric assistant in Kirkuk and he spent his time learning Hebrew, Greek, Persian, Kurdish and he authored as well in German and English.

From there he took off to Rome and met pope Pius X, and during his stay in Paris he managed to make contacts with French orientalists and print some of his works.

Knowing that the Kurd chief had concealed him they summoned him to surrender the Archbishop, set fire to his house, and threatened him with death.

[citation needed] The Archbishop remained hidden for several days, but eventually a band of Kurdish mercenaries who worked with the Ottoman Turkish army discovered his hideout.