The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery was a Syriac Orthodox monastery near Malatya in Turkey . The monastery served as the regular patriarchal residence from the eleventh century until the thirteenth century, and was eventually abandoned in the seventeenth century. It produced five patriarchs and forty-three metropolitan bishops . Between 1074 and 1283 several synods took place at the monastery.
43-413: The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery was founded in the mid-fifth century and named after Mōr Barṣawmō , a popular saint amongst Syriac Orthodox Christians, of whom the monastery had the relic of his right arm. It is first mentioned in church history in 790 as the place of death and burial of the patriarch George of Beltan . The monastery became a centre of learning in the ninth century. Muslims were known to visit
86-570: A copy to be made by hand in 1888 and published a photographic reproduction in four volumes (1899–1910), with a French translation. In 2009, the facsimile of Edessan-Aleppo codex was published by Gorgias Press in the first volume (edited by Mor Gregorios Yuhanna Ibrahim) of a series on the Chronicle of Michael the Great. A digital facsimile is also available in vHMML Reading Room . Chronicle contains valuable historical data on Christian communities of
129-803: A silent final yodh ; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : מָר ), also Mor in Western Syriac , is an Aramaic word meaning " lord ". The corresponding feminine forms in Syriac are Morth and Marth for "lady" ( Syriac : ܡܪܬܝ , Mārt(y) ). It is a title of reverence in Syriac Christianity , where the title is placed before the Christian name , as in Mar Aprem / Mor Afrem for Ephrem the Syrian , and Marth / Morth Maryam for St Mary . It
172-421: Is a particular title given to Jesus , either alone or in combination with other names and titles. Likewise, Marth or Morth ( Syriac : ܡܪܬܢ , Mārtan , "Our Lady") is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus. Occasionally, the term Maran or Moran has been used by various Eastern Christian patriarchs and catholicoi , who started using it in the recent centuries. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch ,
215-688: Is also extant in British Library ms. Orient. 4402, and an Arabic version beginning with book 5 exists in a Vatican manuscript. As secondary witnesses: Bar Hebraeus , pseudo-Jacob, and Maribas the Chaldean all rely upon Michael's work. 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
258-470: Is given to all saints and is also used in instead of " Most Reverend ", just before the name in religion taken by bishops . The title of Moran Mor / Maran Mar is given to the Catholicoi and other primates ; and the title Mar / Mor is given to prelates such as metropolitan bishops or archbishops . The variant Moran or Maran ( Syriac : ܡܪܢ , Moran ), meaning " Our Lord ",
301-855: Is pronounced [mar] ( Hebrew : מָר ), and it is used as a formal way of addressing or referring to a male person. In the Talmud , Tabyomi is sometimes referred to as Mar. "Mar" was also the honorific of the Exilarch (leader of the Jewish diaspora community in Babylon), with the Aramaic-speaking Jews sharing many cultural attributes with the Syriac Christians. In the Modern Hebrew of contemporary Israel, "Mar"
344-727: Is recorded by Bar Hebraeus . He was born ca. 1126 in Melitene (today Malatya), the son of the Priest Eliya (Elias), of the Qindasi family. His uncle, the monk Athanasius, became bishop of Anazarbus in Cilicia in 1136. At that period Melitene was part of the kingdom of the Turkoman Danishmend dynasty , and, when that realm was divided in two in 1142, it became the capital of one principality. In 1178 it became part of
387-619: Is the original form of Mara/Moro, but only used in reference to God in the circle of Syriac Christianity. This word is used in the Peshitta Old Testament to render the Tetragrammaton . Although Mara/Moro is clearly a derived form of the above Marya/Moryo , and ultimately has roots in common Semitic , there is a fanciful derivation found in early Syriac lexica, that the word is an initialism as follows: In Mishnaic Hebrew through to date, this Aramaic word
430-818: Is used without distinction for any male person, like " Mr. " in English. However, in Rabbanical circles of Jews from the Middle East , the Aramaic variant form מָרָן (Maran, Aramaic: our lord) is still a title used for highly appreciated Rabbis, such as Ovadia Yosef , the spiritual leader of the Shas party. In Mandaeism , names for Hayyi Rabbi ("the Great Life") in Mandaic (an Eastern Aramaic variety) include
473-756: The Jacobite Syrian Catholicos titles are called Moran Mor , while the Malankara Orthodox Catholicos use the title Moran Mor . Sometimes the Indian bearers of this title are called Moran Mar , using a hybrid style from both Syriac dialects that reflects somewhat the history of Syro-Malabar Christians . The Pope is referred to as Marpāpa (Holy Father) by the St Thomas Christians of India. The variant Marya or Moryo ( Syriac : ܡܪܝܐ , Māryā )
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#1732772942509516-479: 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. Michael himself noted in the appendix of his Chronicle: " With
559-570: The Sultanate of Rûm . The Jacobite monastery of Mor Bar Sauma was close to the town, and had been the patriarchal seat since the 11th century. As a child, Michael entered the service of the monastery, and became archimandrite before the age of thirty. He made various improvements to the abbey's infrastructure which include securing the abbey's water supply and strengthening of the Abbey's defenses against marauding bandits. On 18 October 1166 he
602-467: The 13th century as Ignatius III David ( r. 1222–1252 ), a former monk of the monastery, largely resided in Armenian and Frankish territory at Qalʿa Rumoyto and Antioch. Dionysius VII ʿAngur ( r. 1252–1261 ) resided at the monastery and was visited by the maphrian Bar Hebraeus at least twice. For a time, control of the monastery was contested between its abbot Yaʿqub and his brother
645-613: The Great ( Syriac : ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܪܰܒ݁ܳܐ , romanized : Mīkhoʾēl Rabo ) or Michael Syrus or Michael the Elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, was a patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1166 to 1199. He is best known today as the author of the largest medieval Chronicle , which he wrote in the Syriac language . Some other works and fragments written by him have also survived. The life of Michael
688-702: The Late Antique period relies mainly upon Dionysius of Tel Mahre . It includes a version of the Testimonium Flavianum . The work is extant in a single manuscript written in 1598 in Syriac, in Serto script. This was copied from an earlier manuscript, itself copied from Michael's autograph. The manuscript is today held in a locked box in a church in Aleppo , and recently became accessible to scholarship. French scholar Jean-Baptiste Chabot arranged for
731-691: The Latin crusader states , and records the tolerance and liberalism of the Catholic Franks towards the miaphysites : 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
774-616: The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery in January 1155 by Athanasius VII, at which the process of the preparation of the chrism was agreed and confirmed the merger of the dioceses of the Mor Mattai Monastery and of Tikrit . Towards the middle of the 12th century, many Syriac Orthodox Christians took refuge in the principality of Antioch , driven by the fall of Edessa as well as the sack of the monastery. This spread
817-824: The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery. The persecution of Syriac Orthodox Christians in the eleventh century led most patriarchs to reside outside of Roman territory until the Seljuk victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 weakened the Romans' grasp of the region and allowed the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery to become the focal point of the Church's activities. As a consequence, it produced several subsequent patriarchs, namely Basil II ( r. 1074–1075 ), Dionysius V Lazarus ( r. 1077–1078/1079 ), and Athanasius VI bar Khamoro ( r. 1091–1129 ), who had all previously been monks there. As
860-474: The ancient ruins atop Mount Nemrut may have been used in the construction of the vaults of the new church in 1186. Michael's successor Athanasius VIII bar Salibi ( r. 1199–1207 ), who had also been abbot of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, was challenged by the anti-patriarch Michael II the Younger, a former student at the monastery. Use of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery as a patriarchal residence declined in
903-405: The anti-patriarch Theodoros bar Wahbun (d. 1193), who was a former monk of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery. Although it was seriously damaged by fire in 1183, Michael used the monastery to host several synods throughout his patriarchate and expanded the library's collection of manuscripts. In addition to this, he constructed the new church between 1180 and 1193, where he was later buried. Materials from
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#1732772942509946-602: The cognate word Mara as in Mara ḏ-Rabuta ࡌࡀࡓࡀ ࡖࡓࡀࡁࡅࡕࡀ ('Lord of Greatness' or 'The Great Lord'; see also the Manichaean term Father of Greatness ). Michael the Syrian Mor Michael the Syrian ( Arabic : ميخائيل السرياني , romanized : Mīkhaʾēl el Sūryani: ),( Classical Syriac : ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܳܐ , romanized: Mīkhoʾēl Sūryoyo ), died AD 1199, also known as Michael
989-519: The cross without enquiry or cross-examination. He also praises the Templars and Hospitallers to his own people: 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
1032-643: The crusader states, at Antioch and Jerusalem. He was invited by Pope Alexander III to attend the Third Council of the Lateran , but declined. However he did participate by letter, writing a long treatise on the Albigensians , based on the information he had been given. Michael was also involved in the Egyptian controversy over the doctrine of confession , and supported Pope Mark III of Alexandria in
1075-518: The emperor, he replied with a simple statement of the miaphysite creed of the Jacobites. 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
1118-501: The excommunication of Mark Ibn Kunbar . In 1180, his former pupil Theodore bar Wahbun had himself elected patriarch at Amida under the name of John by certain malcontent bishops, beginning a schism which lasted for thirteen years. Michael took energetic action, got hold of the anti-patriarch and locked him up at Bar Sauma and formally deposed him. Some of monks allowed Ibn Wahbon to escape, who fled to Damascus and tried in vain to appeal to Saladin . He then went to Jerusalem, and, after
1161-612: The fall of the city in 1187, went to Rumkale with the Armenian Catholicos Gregory IV , who allowed him to obtain official recognition from Prince Leo II of Armenian Minor . Theodore had many supporters, and the schism did not end until the death of Theodore in the summer of 1193. According to Bar Hebraeus Theodore could write and speak in Syriac, Greek, Armenian and Arabic, and composed a statement of his case against Michael in Arabic. In 1182, Michael received
1204-456: 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. " 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
1247-447: The loss of Edessa and most of his capital, Joscelin II ransacked the monastery in 1148 in the hope of restoring his fortunes with the treasures of the monastery and extorted 10,000 dinars from the monks and their tenants. A sum of 5000 dinars was then collected by the metropolitan bishop of Kaysum from Syriac Orthodox Christians to restore the monastery. In spite of this, a synod was held at
1290-657: The monastery and the Islamic scholar Yaqut al-Hamawi recorded that he had heard that the monastery paid 10,000 dinars per annum to the Roman Emperor on behalf of Muslims who had made vows there. In 969, at the invitation of the Roman Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas , a significant number of Syriac Orthodox Christians resettled Malatya and its hinterland, and the patriarch John VII Sarigta ( r. 965–985 ) transferred his residence to
1333-458: The nearby Monastery of Bārid . Whilst John VII's successor Athanasius IV Salhoyo ( r. 986/987–1002/1003 ) maintained the patriarchal residence at the Monastery of Bārid, he however died at the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery and was buried in the sacristy , which was located on the north side of the old church. Athanasius IV was thus succeeded by John VIII bar Abdoun , who had been a monk at
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1376-491: The north and Armenian and Frankish territory to the south. However, Joscelin I, Count of Edessa , was able to seize the chrism and ritual objects necessary for the consecration of a patriarch after the death of Athanasius VI in 1129, thereby securing control of the election of his successor, which were only returned to Athanasius VII bar Qatra ( r. 1138/1139–1166 ) after having approved of Joscelin II 's preferred candidate to become archbishop of Edessa . Following
1419-501: The patriarchal residence, the monastery's library became renowned, particularly due to the collections of Patriarch Athanasius VI. Malatya and the surrounding region was captured by the Danishmendid Emir Gazi Gümüshtigin in 1101, in which year the monastery's fortifications were strengthened to better protect it against potential threats due to its position on the frontier between Turkish territory to
1462-446: The physician priest Shemʿun of Qalʿa Rumoyto and Patriarch Ignatius IV Yeshu ( r. 1264–1282/1283 ) until the brothers recognised the patriarch's authority and submitted to him. The monastery seemed to have served as the regular residence of Philoxenus I Nemrud ( r. 1283–1292 ) despite suffering severe damage in an earthquake in 1284/1285 and was used for the consecration of Barṣawmo Ṣafī as maphrian in 1288. The monastery
1505-521: The sultan Kilij Arslan II at Melitene, and held cordial talks with him. 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. 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. Michael
1548-573: The summer of 1169, he held a synod and attempted to reform the church, then tainted with simony . 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
1591-476: The veneration of Mōr-Barṣawmō amongst the population of Antioch and resulted in the building of a church dedicated to the saint in 1156, sponsored by a Frankish couple, and a monk of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, Saliba, became its first prior . Ties between the monastery and the church in Antioch remained strong and many refugees from the region around the monastery attended the church. In 1162–1163, an aqueduct
1634-533: 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. This Chronicle runs from creation up to Michael's own times. It uses earlier ecclesiastical histories, some of them now lost ; for instance, its coverage of
1677-400: Was constructed at the monastery by Yuhanna, metropolitan bishop of Mardin, and its fortifications were bolstered in 1164. Upon the death of Athanasius VII in 1166, he was buried alongside Athanasius IV and Athanasius VI in the sacristy of the old church and succeeded by Michael the Syrian , archimandrite of the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery. From 1180 onwards, Michael's patriarchate was contested by
1720-484: 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 Amaury de Nesle, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem . Returning to the monastery of Mar Bar Sauma in
1763-671: Was identified with the archaeological site known as Borsun Kalesi situated around a 1600m peak at the south-western end of the Kaplı Dağı in the upper valley of the Kâhta Çayı, between Malatya and Adıyaman in Turkey , by Ernst Honigmann. The remains of the monastery were examined in 2000 and 2004 and found to be in an alarming state as wild excavation and site destruction were threatening the site. Notes Citations Mar (title) Mar ( Classical Syriac : ܡܪܝ Mār(y) , written with
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1806-414: Was likely abandoned soon after it had been looted by Kurds and the patriarchal claimant Ignatius Constantine had been murdered in 1293. The Mor Bar Sauma Monastery was later reoccupied in the second half of the fifteenth century and continued to operate until at least 1675/1676, at which point it is attested that a rabbān (priest-monk in Syriac ) named Barṣawm was ordained for the monastery. The monastery
1849-424: 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
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