 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(June 2020) |
Mari bar Toba was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 987 to 999.
| This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(June 2020) |
Mari bar Toba was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 987 to 999.
Brief accounts of Mari's patriarchate are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (floruit 1280) and in the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari (twelfth-century), ʿAmr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century). Modern assessments of his reign can be found in Jean-Maurice Fiey's Chrétiens syriaques sous les Abbassides and David Wilmshurst's The Martyred Church. [1]
The following account of Mari's patriarchate is given by Bar Hebraeus:
The catholicus ʿAbdishoʿ died after fulfilling his office for twenty-six years, on the second day of hziran [June] in the year 376 of the Arabs [AD 986], at the age of eighty-eight, after having consecrated one hundred and four bishops. At the order of the caliph he was succeeded by Mari bar Toba, a lawyer of Mosul, against the will of the bishops, who only wrote to give their consent after being beaten with rods. They consecrated him at Seleucia, according to custom, on the sixth Sunday of Lent in the year 377 of the Arabs [AD 987]. He read the gospel after his consecration, but did not expound it, and on the same day he celebrated the eucharist but did not station an attendant by the entrance to the altar, as his predecessors had done. He was the first to receive a firman from the caliph confirming his appointment. The practice caught on, and every catholicus thereafter was given a firman shortly after his consecration, or he was not considered to have been properly appointed. Mari was in very poor health, and had only an elementary knowledge of ecclesiastical functions and ceremonies, but he was an outstanding and experienced administrator, and was also noted for his charity and generosity. They say that when he first occupied the throne he found not a single zuze in the patriarchal treasury, but by working hard he was able to amass large sums of money, with which he bought several properties for the patriarchal seat (villas and that kind of thing) and added some spectacular buildings to the church and residence of the catholicus. [2]
After the catholicus Mari had fulfilled his office for fourteen years, he died in the first month of the year 390 of the Arabs, that is to say on the twenty-eighth day of the former kanun [December] in the year 1311 of the Greeks [AD 999]. [3]
Ishoʿ bar Nun was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 823 to 828. He succeeded Timothy I, widely considered to be the most impressive of the Nestorian patriarchs.
Tomarsa was bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and primate of the Church of the East from 363 to 371. He took office at the end of the great persecution of Shapur II. Like several other early bishops of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, he is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Enosh was Patriarch of the Church of the East between 877 and 884.
Ahadabui was a legendary primate of the Church of the East, who is conventionally believed to have sat from 204 to 220.
Shahlufa was a legendary primate of the Church of the East, who is conventionally believed to have reigned from 220 to 224 A.D.
Qayyoma was bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and primate of the Church of the East during the final decades of the fourth century. He is traditionally believed to have sat from 377 to 399, though these dates have been disputed by some modern scholars. Like several other early bishops of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, he is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Yahballaha I was bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, grand metropolitan and primate of the Church of the East from 415 to 420. He is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East. During his tenure he conducted the second council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in his episcopate, addressing tensions rising with the church in the Roman Empire.
Shila was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 503 to 523. He is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Farbokht served briefly as bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, grand metropolitan and primate of the Church of the East in 421. He is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Joseph was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 552 to 567. He was immensely unpopular, and was eventually deposed by his bishops. He was notorious for having invented much of the early history of the Church of the East. Despite his deposition, his name is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.
Sabrishoʿ II was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 831 to 835. He sat during the reigns of the caliphs al-Maʿmun (813–33) and al-Muʿtasim (833–41).
Emmanuel I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 937 to 960.
ʿAbdishoʿ I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 963 to 986.
Eliya I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1028 to 1049. He is also known as the author of an early grammar of Syriac written around the year 1000.
Sabrishoʿ IV bar Qayyoma was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1222 until his death in 1225.
Eliya III Abu Halim was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1176 to 1190.
Ishoʿyahb IV bar Ezekiel was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1020 to 1025. He was an unpopular patriarch, who was defied by many of his metropolitans and bishops.
Giwargis II was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 828 to 831.
Makkikha I was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 1092 to 1110.
Theodosius was Patriarch of the Church of the East between 853 and 858.
