Mar Abba the Great | |
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![]() Mar Abba the Great Patriarch of Seleucia-Ctesiphon | |
Catholicos Patriarch | |
Born | Hala, Asorestan, Sasanid Iran |
Died | 552 Adurbadagan, Sasanid Iran |
Venerated in | Assyrian Church of the East Ancient Church of the East Chaldean Catholic Church Syro-Malabar Catholic Church |
Major shrine | The Seminary of Mar Abba the Great El Cajon, California, United States |
Aba I (or, with his Syriac honorific, Mar Aba I) or Mar Abba the Great was the Patriarch of the Church of the East at Seleucia-Ctesiphon from 540 to 552. [1] He introduced to the church the anaphoras of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius beside the more ancient liturgical rite of Addai and Mari. [2] Though his tenure as catholicos saw Christians in the region threatened during the Persian-Roman wars and attempts by both Sassanid Persian and Byzantine rulers to interfere with the governance of the church, his reign is reckoned a period of consolidation, [3] and a synod he held in 544 as (despite excluding the Diocese of Merv) instrumental in unifying and strengthening the church. [4] In 544, the Synod of Mar Aba I adopted the ordinances of the Council of Chalcedon. [5] He is thought to have written and translated a number of religious works. [3] [6] After his death in February 552, the faithful carried his casket from his simple home across the Tigris to the monastery of Mar Pithyon.
Aba is a highly regarded and significantly venerated saint in the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. [7] He is documented in the Ausgewählte Akten Persischer Märtyrer , and The Lesser Eastern Churches , two biographies of Eastern saints. The first seminary of the Chaldean Catholic Church outside of Iraq was established in July 2008 in El Cajon, San Diego, as the Seminary of Mar Abba the Great.
Born in a Zoroastrian family of Persian origin [8] [9] in Hala, Mesopotamia. Mar Aba was secretary to the governor of Beth Garmai province before he converted to Christianity. [3] He was baptised in Ḥīrtā and studied at the School of Nisibis. [10] He then went to Edessa in the Roman Empire, where he learned Greek from Thomas, who became his travelling companion. He traveled widely in the Roman Empire, visiting the Holy Land, Constantinople and Egypt. [11] He was in Constantinople sometime between 525 and 533. [10] Because he favoured the Biblical interpretation and commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I attempted to meet with him to persuade him to denounce Theodore's teachings. Justinian was preparing to anathematize Theodore and his works. [12] In Alexandria, one of his pupils was the merchant and writer known as "Cosmas Indicopleustes". In his Christian Topography, written between 548 and 550, Cosmas credits Aba with teaching him everything he knows. He says that in Greek Aba went by the name Patrikios. [13]
Upon returning to Persia, Aba became a mpaššqānā or teacher of biblical exegesis at the School of Nisibis. [11] One of his pupils there was Cyrus of Edessa. [14] He later taught in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the school of which he is said to have founded. [11] Highly regarded as a scholar, [3] he is credited with the translation (or with having overseen the translation) of key texts, including the works of Theodore and Nestorius, from Greek into Syriac. [15] The translator of Nestorius' Book of Heraclides dedicated his work to Aba. [11] Aba is also remembered as the author of original works including Biblical commentaries, homilies and synodal letters. [16] These survive today only in quotations in other works, notably those of Ishodad of Merv. A remark in the Chronicle of Seert may suggest that Aba made a translation of the Old Testament into Syriac, but there is no other evidence of this. [11]
Aba's tenure as catholicos followed a 15-year period of schism within the church, during which remote areas had elected their own rival bishops. Aba was able to resolve this schism, visiting the disputed areas and negotiating agreements to reunite the church. [1] In 544, he convened a synod to ratify these agreements; the synod agreed that the metropolitans of those regions under the See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon would, in the future, elect catholicoi at formal meetings. This agreement was, however, substantially subverted in later years, not least when the Persian ruler Khosrau I influenced the selection of Joseph, Aba's successor as catholicos. [3]
The acts of the synod also documented an "orthodoxy of faith", written by Aba himself. Some of its prescriptions indicate the particularly Persian character of the church in the East, [17] including a set of marriage rules prohibiting unions between close kin, apparently formulated in deliberate response to Zoroastrian practice. [18]
In 549, Aba established a diocese for the Hephthalite Huns. [19]
Tensions between the Persian and Byzantine empires ran high during Mar Aba's lifetime, and, after the outbreak of the Lazic War in 541, persecution of Christians in Persia became more common. Zoroastrians hostile to Aba as an apostate pressured Khosrau to act against him, and, as punishment for proselytizing among the Zoroastrians, Aba was placed under house arrest and eventually exiled to Adurbadagan (Azarbaijan). He was allowed to return to the See after seven years and continued as Catholicos until 552, [1] when he died – in some accounts, as a result of torture and exposure inflicted during his imprisonment.
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian Nestorius, who promoted specific doctrines in the fields of Christology and Mariology. The second meaning of the term is much wider, and relates to a set of later theological teachings, that were traditionally labeled as Nestorian, but differ from the teachings of Nestorius in origin, scope and terminology. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Nestorianism as:
"The doctrine of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, by which Christ is asserted to have had distinct human and divine persons."
The School of Nisibis was an educational establishment in Nisibis. It was an important spiritual centre of the early Church of the East, and like the Academy of Gondishapur, it is sometimes referred to as the world's first university. The school had three primary departments teaching: theology, philosophy and medicine. Its most famous teacher was Narsai, formerly head of the School of Edessa.
Babai the Great was an early church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a systematic way. He served as a monastic visitor and coadjutor with Mar Aba as unofficial heads of the Church of the East after Catholicos Gregory until 628 AD, leaving a legacy of strong discipline and deep religious Orthodoxy. He is revered in the modern Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East.
Henana of Adiabene was a Christian theologian, and headmaster of the School of Nisibis, the main theological center of the Church of the East (571–610).
The Synod of Beth Lapat was a local council of the Church of the East, that was held in 484, in the Persian city of Gundeshapur. The council was headed by Metropolitan Barsauma of Nisibis, who was involved in a long conflict with Patriarch Babowai of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. No acts of this synod have been preserved, but fragmentary data from other sources suggest that various ecclesiological issues had been discussed, and that disciplinary canons against simony were adopted. Since Metropolitan Barsauma was involved in christological disputes, it is believed that several doctrinal questions were also discussed, and some later sources suggest that synod of 484 adopted a resolution in support of theological teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Since no creeds or theological decisions of this council have been preserved, its outcome has been the subject of various assumptions among scholars.
Barsauma, nicknamed Bar Sawma, "son of Lent" in Syriac, was Metropolitan of Nisibis in the 5th century, and a major figure in the history of the Church of the East. Under his leadership the church moved away from Roman loyalties and became increasingly aligned with the Nestorian movement.
A catholicos is the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and, in some cases, it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient Greek καθολικός, derived from καθ' ὅλου from κατά and ὅλος, meaning "concerning the whole, universal, general"; it originally designated a financial or civil office in the Roman Empire.
The Maphrian, originally known as the Grand Metropolitan of the East and also known as the Catholicos, was the second-highest rank in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church, right below that of patriarch. The office of a maphrian is an maphrianate. There have been three maphrianates in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and one, briefly, in the Syriac Catholic Church.
The Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, also called the Council of Mar Isaac, met in AD 410 in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian Sassanid Empire. Convoked by King Yazdegerd I (399–421), it organized the Christians of his empire into a single structured Church, which became known as the Church of the East. It is often compared to Constantine's Edict of Milan, approximately a century earlier. The events of this council are documented in the Synodicon Orientale.
The Metropolitanate of Maishan or Maysan was an East Syriac metropolitan province of the Church of the East between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. The historical region of Maishan or Maysan is situated in southern Iran. The metropolitans of Maishan sat at Prath d'Maishan, and for most of its history the province had three suffragan dioceses, at Karka d'Maishan, Rima and Nahargur. The last metropolitan of Maishan, the noted East Syriac author Shlemun (Solomon) of Basra, is attested in 1222, and it is not clear when the province ceased to exist.
Sabrisho I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 596 to 604, during the rule of King Khosrow II.
The Church of the East or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches of Nicene Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies of the 5th and 6th centuries, alongside the Miaphisite churches and the Chalcedonian Church.
Papa bar Aggai was the Assyrian Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of Sassanid Persia, in the late 3rd and early 4th century. An important figure in the early history of the Church of the East, he was first in the generally recognized line of Bishops of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, who would later become the acknowledged head of the church. He was the first bishop to be given the title of Catholicos, or universal leader, and set about restructuring the previously disorganized Persian church. Some historians describe him as the founding figure of the Church of the East, though according to Syriac tradition, he was simply continuing a line of leaders, such as Mar Mari, that stretched back to Thomas the Apostle.
The patriarch of the Church of the East is the patriarch, or leader and head bishop of the Church of the East. The position dates to the early centuries of Christianity within the Sassanid Empire, and the Church has been known by a variety of names, including the Church of the East, Nestorian Church, the Persian Church, the Sassanid Church, or East Syrian.
Acacius was Catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and Patriarch of the Church of the East from 485 to 496. His tenure was marked by internal christological and ecclesiological disputes. He struggled to prevent the Church of the East from aligning itself with the 'Nestorian' doctrine espoused by the metropolitan Barsauma of Nisibis. He is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Cyrus of Edessa was a Syriac writer and teacher in the Church of the East. He was probably a native of Edessa. He studied at the school of Nisibis under Aba, the future patriarch, and then taught at the school of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, eventually rising to become its headmaster. He founded a monastery at Ḥirta sometime after the death of Aba (552).
The School of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was a theological school of the Church of the East located in the western half of the city of Seleucia-Ctesiphon on the right bank of the Tigris. It was an independent Christian school, not attached to any particular church or monastery.
Maʿna, also known as Maʿna of Pars, Maʿna of Rev Ardashir or Maʿna of Shiraz, was a Persian Christian theologian, author and an East Syriac metropolitan bishop of Pars during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
The Synodicon Orientale is a compilation of synods and canons of the Church of the East from the early fifth to the late eighth century and is a reflection of the intellectual and political interests of the catholicosate of Baghdad. It provides information not only about ecclesiastical affairs, but also about the context of the church operating under Persian and Islamic governments. Only minor editorial revision is present with respect to anachronistic ecclesiastical titles, in a fashion that does not impact the historical reliability of the text. It was compiled in the late eighth or early ninth centuries under the direction of Timothy I of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. As it claims to be a complete compilation of synods, and the first synod that Timothy I held was in 790, it may date between 775 and 790. However, it is embedded into an even larger text known as the Great Synodicon which was compiled in the 11th century and contains a much larger variety of historical and pseudo-historical writings. The Great Synodicon contains 80 items according to the numbering of Walter Selb, of which the Synodicon Orientale covers items 28–41. Chabot divided the manuscript of the Great Synodicon into three volumes: the Synodicon Orientale is the second volume, with the items before it composing the first, and the items after it the third.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chabot, Jean-Baptiste (1912). "Syriac Language and Literature". Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 14.