Yohannan VIII Hormizd
According to his autobiography, Yohannan Hormizd was born in 1760 in Alqosh to an Assyrian family. His father, the deacon Hanna (Yohannan), was the brother of the Mosul patriarch Eliya XII Denha (1722–78).
Yohannan VIII Hormizd
Unfortunately for Yohannan, his position was immediately undermined by renewed complaints from a section of the Chaldean church. On this occasion his opponents, supported by the Latin missionaries, impugned his orthodoxy and accused him of embezzling monastic property. In 1802 the priest Yohannan Mushe of Tel Isqof was despatched to Rome with letters demanding the dismissal of both Yohannan and his nephew Shemon, metropolitan of Amadiya. He had only sufficient funds to reach Saida in Syria, where he entrusted the letter to the missionary Leopold Sebastien, who was leaving for Rome. The letters do not seem to have produced any immediate effect, but doubtless added to the concern in the Vatican about Yohannan Hormizd's reliability.