Chaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Kirkuk-Sulaimaniya
The foundation of the Chaldean Catholic diocese of Kirkuk has been attributed to Yohannan VIII Hormizd, who was recognised by the Vatican as patriarchal administrator of the patriarch of Babylon in 1780 and, after five decades of disputes and confrontations, as patriarch in 1830. According to the Chaldean Catholic priest Joseph Tfinkdji, Yohannan Hormizd visited the town of Kirkuk in 1789 while travelling from Mosul to Baghdad, and converted its Church of the East community to Catholicism. He is said to have consecrated a Chaldean metropolitan for Kirkuk, Mar Abraham, who resided in Aïnqawa during his reign, and died between 1821 and 1824. The source for this assertion is not clear. Abraham is not mentioned by any other source, and as Yohannan Hormizd himself (then considered by the Vatican to be merely metropolitan of Mosul) is styled 'metropolitan of Kirkuk' in a colophon of 1798, the Kirkuk region would seem to have been part of the diocese of Mosul at this period.
Hormisdas Djibri
On 31 August 1917, ArchBishop Estefan Jabri succeeded Theodore Massaieh as Archbishop of Kirkuk. Following the first world war, he found refuge for those displaced by the conflict by leading them to the city of Ninevah (Mosul) and the northern Christian villages of Iraq, including Inkawa and Alqosh. He built the Church of Saint Joseph of Kirkuk, the Church of Saint Georgis of Inkawa, the Arbil Chaldean church and the church of Saint Mary in Shaklawa. He refurbished many of existing Chaldean churches as well as preserving the heritage of monasteries, including Rabban Hormiz. He died on 18 July 1953.