Michael the Syrian
Michael the Syrian | |
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Saint, Patriarch of the | |
Buried | Mor Bar Sauma Monastery |
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Saint Michael the Syrian (
Life
Early years
The life of Michael is recorded by
The Jacobite
Syriac Patriarch
On 18 October 1166 he was elected Patriarch of the Jacobite church, and consecrated in the presence of twenty-eight bishops. In 1168 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then stayed for a year at Antioch. Both towns were at the time part of the Latin crusader states, and Michael established excellent relations with the crusader lords, especially with
The Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenos made approaches to him to negotiate a reunion of the churches. But Michael did not trust the Greeks. He refused to go to Constantinople when invited by the emperor, and even refused twice, in 1170 and 1172, to meet his envoy Theorianus, instead sending as his own representative bishop John of Kaishoum and then his disciple Theodore bar Wahbun. In three successive letters to the emperor, he replied with a simple statement of the miaphysite creed of the Jacobites.[4]
Around 1174 Michael had to contend with a revolt by a party of bishops. He himself was twice arrested at the instigation of the dissident bishops, so he says; once by the servants of the prefect of Mardin and the second time by those of the emir of Mosul. Also the monks of Bar Sauma rebelled against him in 1171 and 1176.
Between 1178 and 1180 he resided again in the crusader states, at Antioch and Jerusalem. He was invited by Pope Alexander III to attend the
Michael was also involved in the Egyptian controversy over the doctrine of confession, and supported Pope Mark III of Alexandria in the excommunication of Mark Ibn Kunbar.[5]
Schism
In 1180 his former pupil
In 1182, Michael received the sultan Kilij Arslan II at Melitene, and held cordial talks with him.
Death
He died at the monastery of Bar Sauma on 7 November 1199 at the age of seventy-two, having been patriarch for thirty-three years. He was buried in a new church he had built between 1180 and 1193 in front of the northern altar.[7] His nephew, Michael the Younger, known as Yeshti' Sephethana [Syriac ܝܸܫܬ݂' ܣܸܦܗܸܬܗܲܢܲ] or "Big-lips", became anti-patriarch at Melitene from 1199 to 1215, in opposition to Athanasius IX and then John XIV.[1]
Works
Michael was a profuse author. He wrote works on the liturgy, on the doctrine of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and on canon law. Numerous sermons have also survived, mostly unpublished. But he is best known for the World Chronicle that he composed, the longest and richest surviving chronicle in the Syriac language.[8]
The Chronicle
This Chronicle runs from creation up to Michael's own times. It uses earlier ecclesiastical histories, some of them now
The work is extant in a single manuscript written in 1598 in Syriac, in
Chronicle contains valuable historical data on Christian communities of the Near East, and their relations with other communities in the region. It also contains data on local culture, languages and various peoples. Those question have been of particular interest for researches who are studying complex questions related to historical development of religious, linguistic and ethnic identities of local Christian communities.[11][12] Michael himself noted in the appendix of his Chronicle:
"With the help of God we write down the memory of the kingdoms which belonged in the past to our Aramean people, that is, sons of Aram, who are called Suryoye, that is people from Syria."[13][14]
An abbreviated Armenian translation of the Chronicle also exists, from which Victor Langlois published a French translation in 1868. This alone preserves the preface of the work. A shorter Armenian version also exists which has not been published.
A Garshuni version is also extant in British Library ms. Orient. 4402, and an Arabic version beginning with book 5 exists in a Vatican manuscript.[15]
As secondary witnesses: Bar Hebraeus, pseudo-Jacob, and Maribas the Chaldean all rely upon Michael's work.[16]
Points of interest
His work has been used by NASA scientists because of his record of climatic changes, now known to be linked to volcano eruptions. He records that in AD 536:
The sun became dark and its darkness lasted for 18 months. Each day it shone for about 4 hours, and still this light was only a feeble shadow. Everyone declared that the sun would never recover its full light. The fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes.
And in AD 626:
In the year A.D. 626, the light of half the sphere of the sun disappeared, and there was darkness from October to June. As a result people said that the sphere of the sun would never be restored to its original state.
He is a contemporary source for the Latin
The pontiffs of our Jacobite church lived in the middle of them without being persecuted or molested. In Palestine, as in Syria, they never raised any difficulty on account of their faith, nor insisted on a single formula for all the peoples and all the languages of the Christians. But they considered as Christian everyone who venerated the cross without enquiry or cross-examination.
He also praises the Templars and Hospitallers to his own people:[17]
When the Templars or Hospitallers have to occupy a military post, and hold it to the death, they die doing so. When a brother dies, they feed the poor on his behalf for forty days, and give lodgings to forty people. They consider those who die in combat as martyrs. They distribute to the poor a tenth part of their food and drink. Every time they bake bread in one of their houses, they reserve a tenth part for the poor. In spite of their great riches, they are charitable to all who venerate the cross. They founded everywhere hospitals, serving and helping strangers who had fallen sick.
References
- ^ a b c Wright 1894, p. 250.
- ^ Weltecke 2011, p. 287-290.
- ^ Harrak 2019, p. IX.
- ^ Wright 1894, p. 252.
- ASIN B00QH2BQLW.
- ^ Wright 1894, p. 254.
- ^ Kaufhold 2000, pp. 225–226.
- ^ Witakowski 2011, p. 199-203.
- ^ Weltecke 2000, p. 173–202.
- ^ Harrak 2019, p. XIII.
- ^ Morony 2005, p. 1–33.
- ^ Debié 2009, p. 93–114.
- ^ Weltecke 2009, p. 119.
- ^ Debié 2009, p. 104: "And the author of the title of the Appendix to the Chronicle of Michael the Great says that he belongs to the race or nation (umtā) of the Arameans who have come to be called Syrians (suryāyē) or people of Syria (bnay suryā)"
- ^ Chabot 1899b, p. II.
- ISBN 9780878501250.
- ^ a b "Salâh Ad-Dîn, Saladin".
Sources
- Bar-Abrahem, Abdulmesih (1998). "Patriarch Michael the Great: Beyond his World Chronicle" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 12 (2): 33–45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 April 2003.
- Bcheiry, Iskandar (2004). "A List of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchs between 16th and 18th Century: A Historical Supplement to Michael the Syrian's Chronicle in a MS. of Sadad" (PDF). Parole de l'Orient. 29: 211–261.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1980). "Syriac Historical Writing: A Survey of the Main Sources"(PDF). Journal of the Iraq Academy: Syriac Corporation. 5: 1–30.
- ISBN 9780860783053.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1996). Syriac Studies: A Classified Bibliography, 1960-1990. Kaslik: Parole de l'Orient.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1997). A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute.
- ISBN 9780754659082.
- Chabot, Jean-Baptiste (1899a). "La Chronique de Michel le Syrien". Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 43 (4): 476–484.
- ISBN 9785881102456.
- ISBN 9785881814632.
- ISBN 9785884196919.
- Chabot, Jean-Baptiste (1910). Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d'Antioche (1166–1199). Vol. 4. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
- Chabot, Jean-Baptiste (1924). Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d'Antioche (1166–1199). Vol. Supplement. Paris: Ernest Leroux.
- Debié, Muriel (2009). "Syriac Historiography and Identity Formation". Church History and Religious Culture. 89 (1–3): 93–114. .
- Debié, Muriel; Taylor, David G. K. (2012). "Syriac and Syro-Arabic Historical Writing, c. 500-c. 1400". The Oxford History of Historical Writing. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 155–179. ISBN 978-0-19-923642-8.
- Ginkel, Jan J. van (1998). "Making History: Michael the Syrian and his Sixth-Century Sources". Symposium Syriacum VII. Roma: Pontificio Istituto Orientale. pp. 351–358. ISBN 9788872103197.
- Ginkel, Jan J. van (2006). "Michael the Syrian and his Sources: Reflections on the Methodology of Michael the Great as a Historiographer and its Implications for Modern Historians". Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. 6: 53–60. S2CID 212688456.
- Ginkel, Jan J. van (2008). "Aramaic Brothers or Heretics: The Image of the East Syrians in the Chronography of Michael the Great (d. 1199)". The Harp. 23: 359–368.
- Ginkel, Jan J. van (2010). "A Man Is Not an Island: Reflections of the Historiography of the Early Syriac Renaissance in Michael the Great". The Syriac Renaissance. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. pp. 113–121.
- Harrak, Amir, ed. (2019). The Chronicle of Michael the Great (The Edessa-Aleppo Syriac Codex): Books XV–XXI, from the Year 1050 to 1195 AD. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463240318.
- Gregorios Y. Ibrahim (ed.), Text and Translations of the Chronicle of Michael the Great. The Edessa-Aleppo Syriac Codex of the Chronicle of Michael the Great, Vol. 1, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press (2009).
- Kaufhold, Hubert (2000). "Notizen zur Späten Geschichte des Barsaumo-Klosters". Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 3 (2). Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- S2CID 212689089.
- ISBN 9789042914186.
- Reller, Jobst (2017). "Patriarch Michael the Syrian's Views on Islam in the Context of Syriac Historiography and Philosophy". Syriac in its Multi-Cultural Context. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. pp. 187–207. ISBN 9789042931640.
- Rompay, Lucas van (1999). "Jacob of Edessa and the Early History of Edessa". After Bardaisan: Studies on Continuity and Change in Syriac Christianity. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. pp. 269–285. ISBN 9789042907355.
- Schmidt, Andrea B. (2013). "The Armenian Versions I and II of Michael the Syrian" (PDF). Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 16 (1): 93–128. S2CID 212688681.
- Tarzi, Joseph (2000). "Edessa in the Era of Patriarch Michael The Syrian" (PDF). Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 3 (2): 203–221.
- Weltecke, Dorothea (1997). "The World Chronicle by Patriarch Michael the Great (1126-1199): Some Reflections" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 11 (2): 6–29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2003.
- Weltecke, Dorothea (2000). "Originality and Function of Formal Structures in the Chronicle of Michael The Great" (PDF). Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 3 (2): 173–202. S2CID 212688330.
- Weltecke, Dorothea (2009). "Michael the Syrian and Syriac Orthodox Identity". Church History and Religious Culture. 89 (1–3): 115–125. .
- Weltecke, Dorothea (2011). "Michael I Rabo". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 287–290.
- Witakowski, Witold (2011). "Historiography, Syriac". Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 199–203.
- Wright, William (1894). A Short History of Syriac Literature. London: Adam and Charles Black.
External links
- Jullien, Florence (2006). "MICHAEL THE SYRIAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- French translation of Armenian version of the Chronicle
- English translation of preface to the Chronicle
- Robert Bedrosian, Michael the Syrian - English translation of Armenian version of the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian.
- Jürgen Tubach (1993). "Michael the Syrian". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 5. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1467–1471. ISBN 3-88309-043-3.
- NASA scientists and Michael the Syrian