Leonard Melki

Leonard Melki - born Yūsuf Habīb Melkī and in religion Līūnār of B'abdāt - was a Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. His name is often Romanized in various texts. Melki became a priest before serving as a preacher and teacher in different stations of the Mission of Armenia and Mesopotamia of the Capuchin Order. He eventually became the principal of the school of the Capuchin Order in Mardin where he taught the French language and music. He was later arrested and marched to the Sheikhan Caves in the deserts outside Mardin. On June 11, 1915, as part of a deportation convoy of Armenian and Assyrian Christians; including Catholics, Miaphysite Orthodox, and Protestants, they were massacred at the Sheikhan Caves by a combined force of the Ottoman Army and Ottoman Gendarmerie, during the Armenian and Assyrian Genocides ordered by Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha.