Why This Assyrian Bishop is Being Hailed as a Saint

A bishop in Syria is being called a "saint" for working secretly to save the lives of more than 200 Christians who were kidnapped by the Islamic State. 
 
Bishop Mar Afram Athneil raised millions of dollars to pay ransom for Assyrian Christians taken captive by the terror group. 

ISIS fighters attacked 35 Christian towns in the Khabur River valley in northern Syria in February 2015 and kidnapped 226 people. 

ISIS released a video of the group murdering three of the hostages.
     
After that, Athneil began raising money and negotiating for the other members of his church. 

Although paying ransoms is illegal in the United States and most of the West, the small Assyrian community felt it had no other choice.

"You look at it from the moral side and I get it. If we give them money we're just feeding into it, and they're going to kill using that money," said Aneki Nissan, who helped raise funds in Canada. But "to us, we're such a small minority that we have to help each other."
      
A U.S.-based Assyrian filmmaker captured much of the rescue effort by Athneil and his team. 
 
"We don't regret breaking this law - especially when the governments are not doing anything about it," said Sargon Saadi. "You know, they're just putting guidelines on us. How about the lives of these people?''
 
Athneil was able to raise more than $11 million through social media in countries such as Canada and Germany. 

It took more than a year but all the hostages Athneil fought for have now been freed.