Thieves of the Cross or the Strong Delusion of Believing in Lies

Qasha Shmuel Bet Kulya was born in Geogtapa in 1889. After completing his early education in Urmia, he travelled to Russia in 1906 where he studied in Kiev. He returned to Geogtapa in 1926 where he devoted himself to agriculture and literary pursuits. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Assyrian Church of the East in 1951 and served as pastor of Mar Zaya in his village. In both poetry and prose, he is one of the most imaginative writers in the Assyrian language. He was a regular contributor to Gilgamesh and Atour. Although several of his works remain unpublished, a few like “Qasha Sliwa’s Journey to Heaven” and the present work exhibit his unique and profound devotion to the Assyrian Church and Nation. Thieves of the Cross (Khachaqoge) is an Armenian term used by Assyrians to describe charlatans who traveled to Christian countries posing as clerics in order to raise money to supposedly support churches and schools in their oppressed homeland, but in reality, keeping most or all of the money for themselves. As early as 1862, this practice drew the condemnation of western missionaries who worked among the Assyrians to establish churches to draw them from their ancestral church. Several stories of the exploits of these swindlers have entered into Assyrian folklore and it is hard to determine how extensive the practice was in reality. At the dawn of the 20th century, the practice drew the scrutiny of early Assyrian nationalists who were concerned about the reputation and progress of the Assyrian Nation. Bet Kulya insightfully recognizes that the new generation of Khachaqoge were better enabled by the sectarianism that the western missions brought to the Assyrians along with the benefits of modern education and easier access to the west.