He researched, wrote, translated, scriped, and published many scholarly works that included books on the saints, tradition, liturgy, music, and history of Syriac Orthodox Church.

[2] He was born to Istefane Barsoum and Sussan AbdulNour, descendants of two prominent Syriac Orthodox families in Mosul.

There, he mastered Arabic and French and a good deal of Syriac and Turkish languages and he wrote in the mission newspaper, Iklil Al-Ward.

[3] After some time teaching at the school and with encouragement from his family and from Archbishop Dionysius Bihnam Samarji, he decided to join the priesthood and become a monk.

[2] Aged 17, he went to the Deir al-Za`faran monastery in Mardin, the headquarters of the Syriac Orthodox Church where he opted for a clerical life and started his theological training in 1905.

[5] Later that year, he began his first scholarly visit to the monasteries and churches of Mardin, Tur-Abdin, Azech, Khrbut, Nisibin, Al-Ruha, Mosul and its villages, Aleppo, Homs, Beirut, Istanbul, Jerusalem, and Egypt.

During this trip, he read and collected valuable information and wrote list of all their books and manuscripts that helped him in his future literary works.

[3] In 1919, he accompanied Patriarch Ignatius Elias III on his visit to Istanbul where they had audience with the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet Wahid.

When the conference concluded, he went to London to meet with Archbishop of Canterbury and also research the Syriac manuscripts in the British libraries before his return in May, 1920.

On January 30, 1933, he was elected as the 120th Patriarch of Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, assuming the ecclesiastical name of Mor Ignatius Aphrem I Barsoum.

The Syriac Orthodox Church was one of the few none governmental institutions from the old Ottoman Empire that attended this conference and present their cases.

[6] After Patriarch Aphram's participation in this conference and his call to establish a mandate for the Syriac and Assyrian people, he was prevented from entering Turkey again and his books were banned.

[3] Based on these information, Patriarch Aphrem opened the Holy Sanctum in the attendance of Alexandros the Greek Orthodox bishop of Homs and other prominent persons.