He was born in Barṭelle , studied at Sharfeh from 1906, and then at the Syriac Catholic Seminary in Jerusalem . In 1914 he returned to Mosul , and was ordained a priest in 1919. He taught at the Seminary of St. John in Mosul, then at Sharfeh from 1937. He then served in Baghdad . In addition to his other writings, he composed in Syriac a number of poems (a few published according to Abūna).