Pope Francis has approved a decree on canonizing Archbishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was murdered during the Armenian genocide, the Vatican’s news service reports, according to Armenpress.

Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan was born in 1869 in Mardin, in present-day Turkey.

Ordained a priest in 1883 in Lebanon, he took the Christian name Ignatius and became known as an excellent preacher in both Arabic and Turkish, devoting himself to parish ministry and the study of sacred texts in Alexandria, Egypt, Vatican News reports.

In 1911, Pope Pius X appointed him Archbishop of Mardin during the Synod of Armenian Bishops in Rome.

During the Armenian Genocide, Archbishop Maloyan was arrested along with 13 priests and 600 other Christians.

Archbishop Maloyan and his companions were executed on June 3, 1915, when they refused to renounce the Christian faith. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 7, 2001.