Jacob Baradaeus
Encyclopedia
Jacob Baradaeus was Bishop of Edessa from 543 until his death. One of the most important figures in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church
, and the Oriental Orthodox churches generally, he was a defender of the Monophysite movement in a time when its strength was declining. His instrumental efforts in reorganizing and revitalizing the community gave it its alternate name, the Jacobites.
of Edessa
(c. AD 541), with ecumenical authority over the members of their body throughout the East. By his indomitable zeal and untiring activity, this remarkable man rescued the Monophysite community in Asia Minor and the East from the extinction with which persecution by the Byzantine imperial power threatened it, through consecrating bishops, ordaining clergy, and uniting its scattered elements into an organization so well planned and so stable that it has endured through all the many political and dynastic storms in the Middle East
. Materials for his life are furnished by two Syriac biographies by his contemporary, John of Ephesus
, whom Jacobus ordained bishop of Ephesus
, printed by Land, and by the third part of the Ecclesiastical History of the same author.
's garb patched up out of old saddle blankets, in which dress, the better to which disguise his spiritual functions from the eyes of the authorities, he performed his swift and secret journeys over Syria and Mesopotamia
.
. He became remarkable for the severity of his self-discipline. Having on the death of his parents inherited their property, including a couple of slaves, he manumitted them, and made over the house and estate to them, reserving nothing for himself. He eventually became a presbyter. His fame spread, reaching the Byzantine empress Theodora
, who eagerly desired to meet him, as one of the chief figures of the anti-Chalcedonian movement. James was with much difficulty convinced to leave his monastery for Constantinople
. Arriving at the imperial capital, he was received with much honor by Theodora. But the splendor of the court had no attractions for him, and he retired to one of the monasteries of the city, where he lived as a complete recluse.
had resolved to enforce the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon
, and those bishops and clergy who refused to obey these decrees Justinian punished with imprisonment, deprivation, and exile. Whole districts of Syria and the adjacent countries were thus deprived of their pastors, and the Monophysite were threatened with gradual extinction. For ten years many churches had been destitute of sacraments, which they refused to receive from those they considered heretics
. The extreme peril of the Monophysites was represented to Theodora by the Ghassanid king al-Harith
, and she persuaded Jacobus to leave his cell and accept the hazardous and laborious task of rebuilding the Antiochian church. A considerable number of Monophysite bishops from all parts of the East, including Theodosius of Alexandria
, Anthimus the deposed patriarch of Constantinople
, Constantius of Laodicea, John of Egypt
, Peter and others, who had come to Constantinople in the hope of mitigating the displeasure of the emperor and increasing the sympathies of Theodora, were held by Justinian in one of the imperial fortresses under house arrest. They consecrated Jacobus to the episcopate, nominally as bishop of Edessa, but virtually as a metropolitan with ecumenical authority.
The date of Jacobus's consecrated is uncertain, but that given by Assemani
(AD 541) is probably correct. The result proved the wisdom of their choice. Of the simplest mode of life, inured to hardship from his earliest years, tolerant of the extremities of hunger and fatigue, "a second Asahel for fleetness of foot", fired with an unquenchable zeal for what he regarded as the true faith, with a dauntless courage that despised all dangers, Jacobus, in his tattered beggar's disguise, traversed on foot the whole of Asia Minor
, Syria, Mesopotamia and the adjacent provinces, even to the borders of Persia, everywhere ordaining bishops and clergy, encouraging his demoralized co-religionists to courageously maintain their faith against the advocates of the two natures, and organizing them into a compact spiritual body. By his indefatigable labours "the expiring faction was revived, and united and perpetuated... The speed of the zealous missionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs; the doctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were secretly established in the dominions of Justinian, and each Jacobite was compelled to violate the laws and to hate the Roman legislator".
Jacobus is said to have ordained the incredible number of 80,000 clergy. John of Ephesus says 100,000, including 89 bishops and two patriarchs. His remarkable success in reviving the moribund Syriac Orthodox church alarmed the emperor and the Chalcedonian bishops, who offered rewards for his arrest. But dressed in his beggar's garb, and aided by the friendly Arab tribes as well as the people of Syria and Asia, he eluded all attempts to seize him, living into the reign of Tiberius II Constantine
. The longer of the two Lives of Jacobus, by John of Ephesus, recounts the extent and variety of his missionary labours and his miracles.
One of these factional squabbles was between Jacobus and the bishops Conon and Eugenius, whom he had ordained at Alexandria
— the former for the Isaurian Seleucia, the latter for Tarsus — who became the founders of the obscure and short-lived sect of the "Cononites", or, from the monastery at Constantinople to which a section of them belonged, "Condobandites". Each anathematized the other, James denouncing Conon and his companion as "Tritheists", and they retaliated by the stigma of "Sabellian
".
A still longer and more wide-spreading difference arose between Jacobus and Paul the Black, whom he had ordained patriarch of Antioch
. Paul and the other three leading bishops of the Syriac Orthodox Church had been summoned to Constantinople, allegedly to restore unity to the imperial church, but remaining stalwart in the adherence to their own creed, were thrown into prison for a considerable time and subjected to the harshest treatment. This broke their spirit, and one by one they all yielded, accepting the communion of John Scholasticus
, the patriarch of Constantinople, and the "Synodites", as the adherents of the Chalcedonian decrees were contemptuously termed by their opponents, "lapsing miserably into the communion of the two natures". Paul escaped into Arabia, taking refuge with al-Mundhir
, son and successor of al-Harith. On hearing of his defection, Jacobus at once excommunicated Paul, but at the end of three years, Jacobus presented Paul's penitence before the synod of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and he was duly and canonically restored to communion. Paul's rehabilitation caused great indignation among the Copts at Alexandria, who clamoured for his deposition, which was carried into effect by Peter
, the intruded patriarch, in violation of all canonical order; the patriarch of Antioch (Paul's position in the Monophysite communion) owning no allegiance to the patriarch of Alexandria.
Jacobus was persuaded that if he were to visit Alexandria the veneration felt for his age and services would bring to an end the rift between the churches of Syria and Egypt, and though he had denounced Peter, at arrival in Alexandria he was convinced not only to hold communion with Peter but to draw up papers documenting his formal assent to the deposition of Paul, only stipulating that it should not be accompanied by any excommunication. This compromise was unfavorably received in Syria on Jacobus' return. The schism
which resulted between the adherents of James and Paul, AD 576
, "spread like an ulcer" through the whole of the East, especially in Constantinople. Both Paul and the phylarch al-Mundhir vainly attempted to seek a resolution with Jacobus, but Jacobus shrank from investigation, and refused all overtures of accommodation.
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
, and the Oriental Orthodox churches generally, he was a defender of the Monophysite movement in a time when its strength was declining. His instrumental efforts in reorganizing and revitalizing the community gave it its alternate name, the Jacobites.
Biography
He was ordained by the Monophysite bishopBishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Edessa
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...
(c. AD 541), with ecumenical authority over the members of their body throughout the East. By his indomitable zeal and untiring activity, this remarkable man rescued the Monophysite community in Asia Minor and the East from the extinction with which persecution by the Byzantine imperial power threatened it, through consecrating bishops, ordaining clergy, and uniting its scattered elements into an organization so well planned and so stable that it has endured through all the many political and dynastic storms in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Materials for his life are furnished by two Syriac biographies by his contemporary, John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus was a leader of the non-Chalcedonian Syriac-speaking Church in the sixth century, and one of the earliest and most important of historians who wrote in Syriac.-Life:...
, whom Jacobus ordained bishop of Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
, printed by Land, and by the third part of the Ecclesiastical History of the same author.
Name
His surname Baradaeus is derived from the ragged mendicantMendicant
The term mendicant refers to begging or relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on charity to survive....
's garb patched up out of old saddle blankets, in which dress, the better to which disguise his spiritual functions from the eyes of the authorities, he performed his swift and secret journeys over Syria and Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
.
Early life
John of Ephesus reports that Jacobus was born at Tela Mauzalat (Tell Mawzalto), otherwise called Constantina, a city of Osrhoene, 55 miles to the east of Edessa, near the close of the 5th century. His father, Theophilus Bar-Manu, was a priest in Tela Mauzalat. In obedience to his parent's vow, Jacobus was placed at the age of two in the local monastery under the care of abbot Eustathius, and trained in Greek and Syriac literature and in the strictest asceticismAsceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
. He became remarkable for the severity of his self-discipline. Having on the death of his parents inherited their property, including a couple of slaves, he manumitted them, and made over the house and estate to them, reserving nothing for himself. He eventually became a presbyter. His fame spread, reaching the Byzantine empress Theodora
Theodora (6th century)
Theodora , was empress of the Roman Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Like her husband, she is a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14...
, who eagerly desired to meet him, as one of the chief figures of the anti-Chalcedonian movement. James was with much difficulty convinced to leave his monastery for Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. Arriving at the imperial capital, he was received with much honor by Theodora. But the splendor of the court had no attractions for him, and he retired to one of the monasteries of the city, where he lived as a complete recluse.
Works
While he dwelled at Constantinople — 15 years, according to John of Ephesus — the anti-Chalcedonians suffered greatly. Justinian IJustinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
had resolved to enforce the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...
, and those bishops and clergy who refused to obey these decrees Justinian punished with imprisonment, deprivation, and exile. Whole districts of Syria and the adjacent countries were thus deprived of their pastors, and the Monophysite were threatened with gradual extinction. For ten years many churches had been destitute of sacraments, which they refused to receive from those they considered heretics
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
. The extreme peril of the Monophysites was represented to Theodora by the Ghassanid king al-Harith
Al-Harith ibn Jabalah
Al-Ḥārith ibn Jabalah , [Flavios] Arethas in Greek sources and Khalid ibn Jabalah in later Islamic sources, was a king of the Ghassanids, a pre-Islamic Arab people who lived on the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire. The fifth Ghassanid ruler of that name, he reigned from ca...
, and she persuaded Jacobus to leave his cell and accept the hazardous and laborious task of rebuilding the Antiochian church. A considerable number of Monophysite bishops from all parts of the East, including Theodosius of Alexandria
Patriarch Theodosius I of Alexandria
Pope Theodosius I of Alexandria was the last Patriarch of Alexandria recognised by both Copts and Melchites.As successor to Timothy III , he was at first recognized by the Emperor Justinian I and the Eastern Orthodox Church...
, Anthimus the deposed patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
, Constantius of Laodicea, John of Egypt
John of Egypt
Saint John of Egypt was one of the hermits of the Nitrean desert. He began as a carpenter and left to solitude after receiving a divine call. According to hagiographer Alban Butler, John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, such as rolling rocks from...
, Peter and others, who had come to Constantinople in the hope of mitigating the displeasure of the emperor and increasing the sympathies of Theodora, were held by Justinian in one of the imperial fortresses under house arrest. They consecrated Jacobus to the episcopate, nominally as bishop of Edessa, but virtually as a metropolitan with ecumenical authority.
The date of Jacobus's consecrated is uncertain, but that given by Assemani
Assemani
Assemani is a family of Lebanese Maronites that included several notable Orientalists:* Giuseppe Simone Assemani * Stefano Evodio Assemani , nephew of Joseph Simon* Giuseppe Luigi Assemani , brother of Joseph Simon...
(AD 541) is probably correct. The result proved the wisdom of their choice. Of the simplest mode of life, inured to hardship from his earliest years, tolerant of the extremities of hunger and fatigue, "a second Asahel for fleetness of foot", fired with an unquenchable zeal for what he regarded as the true faith, with a dauntless courage that despised all dangers, Jacobus, in his tattered beggar's disguise, traversed on foot the whole of Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
, Syria, Mesopotamia and the adjacent provinces, even to the borders of Persia, everywhere ordaining bishops and clergy, encouraging his demoralized co-religionists to courageously maintain their faith against the advocates of the two natures, and organizing them into a compact spiritual body. By his indefatigable labours "the expiring faction was revived, and united and perpetuated... The speed of the zealous missionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs; the doctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were secretly established in the dominions of Justinian, and each Jacobite was compelled to violate the laws and to hate the Roman legislator".
Jacobus is said to have ordained the incredible number of 80,000 clergy. John of Ephesus says 100,000, including 89 bishops and two patriarchs. His remarkable success in reviving the moribund Syriac Orthodox church alarmed the emperor and the Chalcedonian bishops, who offered rewards for his arrest. But dressed in his beggar's garb, and aided by the friendly Arab tribes as well as the people of Syria and Asia, he eluded all attempts to seize him, living into the reign of Tiberius II Constantine
Tiberius II Constantine
Tiberius II Constantine was Byzantine Emperor from 574 to 582.During his reign, Tiberius II Constantine gave away 7,200 pounds of gold each year for four years....
. The longer of the two Lives of Jacobus, by John of Ephesus, recounts the extent and variety of his missionary labours and his miracles.
Problems
However, Jacobus failed miserably when he attempted to govern the vast and heterogeneous body he had created and organized. The simplicity and innocence of his character, as chronicled by his contemporary John of Ephesus, disqualified him for rule, and put him in the power of "crafty and designing men about him, who turned him every way they chose, and used him as a means of establishing their own powers." His troubles with the bishops he had ordained clouded the closing years of Jacobus' long life. John of Ephesus records the blows, fighting, murders and other deeds "so insensate and unrestrained that Satan and his herds of demons alone could rejoice in them, wrought on both sides by the two factions with which the believers — so unworthy of the name — were rent", provoking "the contempt and ridicule of heathens, Jews, and heretics".One of these factional squabbles was between Jacobus and the bishops Conon and Eugenius, whom he had ordained at Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
— the former for the Isaurian Seleucia, the latter for Tarsus — who became the founders of the obscure and short-lived sect of the "Cononites", or, from the monastery at Constantinople to which a section of them belonged, "Condobandites". Each anathematized the other, James denouncing Conon and his companion as "Tritheists", and they retaliated by the stigma of "Sabellian
Sabellianism
In Christianity, Sabellianism, is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.The term Sabellianism comes from...
".
A still longer and more wide-spreading difference arose between Jacobus and Paul the Black, whom he had ordained patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
. Paul and the other three leading bishops of the Syriac Orthodox Church had been summoned to Constantinople, allegedly to restore unity to the imperial church, but remaining stalwart in the adherence to their own creed, were thrown into prison for a considerable time and subjected to the harshest treatment. This broke their spirit, and one by one they all yielded, accepting the communion of John Scholasticus
John Scholasticus
John Scholasticus was the 32nd patriarch of Constantinople from April 12, 565 until his death in 577. He is also regarded as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church....
, the patriarch of Constantinople, and the "Synodites", as the adherents of the Chalcedonian decrees were contemptuously termed by their opponents, "lapsing miserably into the communion of the two natures". Paul escaped into Arabia, taking refuge with al-Mundhir
Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Harith
Al-Mundhir ibn al-Ḥārith, known in Greek sources as [Flavios] Alamoundaros , was the king of the Ghassanid Arabs from 569 to c. 581. A son of Al-Harith ibn Jabalah, he succeeded his father both in the kingship over his tribe and as the chief of the Byzantine Empire's Arab clients and allies in the...
, son and successor of al-Harith. On hearing of his defection, Jacobus at once excommunicated Paul, but at the end of three years, Jacobus presented Paul's penitence before the synod of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and he was duly and canonically restored to communion. Paul's rehabilitation caused great indignation among the Copts at Alexandria, who clamoured for his deposition, which was carried into effect by Peter
Peter of Callinicum
Peter of Callinicum or Peter III of Raqqa was the non-Chalcedonian 39th patriarch of Antioch who responded at length in Syriac to accusations of tritheism formulated by his colleague Damian of Alexandria in his Adversus Tritheistas or Many-lined Letter...
, the intruded patriarch, in violation of all canonical order; the patriarch of Antioch (Paul's position in the Monophysite communion) owning no allegiance to the patriarch of Alexandria.
Jacobus was persuaded that if he were to visit Alexandria the veneration felt for his age and services would bring to an end the rift between the churches of Syria and Egypt, and though he had denounced Peter, at arrival in Alexandria he was convinced not only to hold communion with Peter but to draw up papers documenting his formal assent to the deposition of Paul, only stipulating that it should not be accompanied by any excommunication. This compromise was unfavorably received in Syria on Jacobus' return. The schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
which resulted between the adherents of James and Paul, AD 576
576
Year 576 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 576 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* The Visigoths establish the capital of...
, "spread like an ulcer" through the whole of the East, especially in Constantinople. Both Paul and the phylarch al-Mundhir vainly attempted to seek a resolution with Jacobus, but Jacobus shrank from investigation, and refused all overtures of accommodation.