 Paulos Faraj Rahho was born to an Assyrian Catholic family in 1942 . He spent nearly all his life in Mosul , a city with one of the largest and oldest Christian populations in Iraq . In 1954 , he entered the St. Peter 's junior and major seminary in Baghdad in order to become a priest . After his ordination on June 10 , 1965 he briefly worked in Baghdad before being appointed to St. Isiah 's Church in Mosul . Between 1974 and 1976 , Rahho completed his religious studies with a Licentiate in Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas , Angelicum in Rome . 
