They were among the first civilizations of the world, and one of the oldest cultures to survive to the present. The were the first of the Gentiles to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. During the First World War, roughly half a million Assyrian Christians shared the mortal fate of the Armenian and Greek Christians, at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Today, the Christians of Assyria, in a land which is now the northern part of Iraq, are a small minority in the Middle East, a region dominated by Islam.
On Sunday, October 31, the eve of All Saints Day, seventy Assyrian Christians were massacred while attending Divine Liturgy in Baghdad. Amidst the horror, a [three]-year-old boy named Adam shouted against the Islamic extremists to stop the shooting. One of them responded by putting a gun into his mouth, and pulling the trigger. His courage for the sake of the Gospel, and the innocence of his tender years, by themselves would surely warrant the declaration, that he is even now raised to the Altar of God.
Saint Adam, pray for us.
(H/T to The Crescat.)
UPDATE: Are you a Syriac Catholic, or do you know someone who is? Click here.