[Illustration: SEIR GATE, OROOMIAH]
The patriarch now excommunicated Mar Yohanan, and made common cause
with the French Lazarists. He even wrote a fraternal epistle to the
pope, ready for any thing, if he could only crush the mission. His
attendants marched about the mission premises with loud threats;
pious Nestorians were knocked down in the streets; while his brother
Isaac went to a distant village, to show that he had no sympathy
with such iniquity.
Soon after, the carpenter who made the coffin was severely beaten by
his own father for attending a prayer meeting. As the blows fell
thick and fast, he cried, "Must this come from my own father?" But
he remained firm, and next day went to the chapel pale and weak, but
filled with holy joy.
Deacon Guwergis, prevented from going to the mountains,--for the
Koords sided with Mar Shimon,--fearlessly encountered the revilings
of the patriarch in his own house, and told him that he hoped to
continue preaching till he died. His countenance must have shone
like Stephen's, for his persecutor said to one of the attendants,
"See how his face glistens.
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