Choukrallah Maloyan (religious name Ignatius) was born on April 19, 1869 at Mardin in the Ottoman Empire to an Armenian Catholic family. Ordained Armenian Catholic priest in 1896, Ignatius served in the Armenian Catholic diaspora before being consecrated Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Mardin in 1911.
During the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923, the systematic Ottoman extermination of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian populations, producing 1.5 million Armenian deaths), Ignatius became the target of the Ottoman government.
Arrested on June 3, 1915, Ignatius was offered the choice of Islamic conversion or death. Ignatius famously refused: 'It is impossible for me to renounce Jesus. Rather I will die.'
On June 10, 1915, Ignatius and 447 Armenian Catholics were sent on the death-march from Mardin. On June 11, 1915, Ottoman gendarmes shot Ignatius after his final refusal to convert to Islam.
Beatified October 7, 2001 by Pope St. John Paul II — the first Armenian Catholic beatified specifically for Armenian Genocide martyrdom.