Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present dayKellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Religion
Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day
Kellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Church year; Fasts and feasts
The second part, originally composed in Syriac, was an addition of the
Syrian translator. Among the persons named in this part, it is noticeable
that there are no Arians, nor even Nestorians, who, when expelled from
the Roman Empire by Theodosius II. in 435, made themselves masters
of the Persian Church. Of the sixteen bishops mentioned in the first
section, at least eight are known to have been orthodox Persian martyrs,
all belonging to the period before 400, _e.g._ Simon Bar-Sabai, Bishop
of Seleucia-Ctesiphon († 17th April 344), his successor, Schahdust (†
346), and Sapor, Bishop of Beth Gormai.[755] Miles (Milles), Simeon,
Barbasimas, Joannes, Sapores, Gudiab, Sabinus, Abdos, Paul, and Ebedjesus
are mentioned by Sozomen as Persian martyrs of the reign of Sapor I.[756]
This very primitive calendar contains only the names of martyrs to the
exclusion of other persons who were even regarded as saints, such as
Mares, the second bishop of Seleucia († 82).[757] The compiler calls
those whom he included in his calendar the Holy Martyrs who had been put
to death in the East, while he regards those named in the first part as
the Holy Confessors of the West, regarding the Roman Empire as the West
in respect to Persia.
The first part, which concerns the West, differs from the second in many
respects. It was drawn up by another hand, and was written originally
in Greek. The latter is a document entirely historical in character,
while the former is liturgical; the one belongs to Persia, the other
to the Roman Empire, and probably to Nicomedia. It was then employed
in Antioch, where it was enlarged, and finally, as it appears, was
translated into Syriac at Edessa. It forms one of the most remarkable
documents of ancient Christian literature.
That this Arian martyrology belonged to the Roman Empire, and especially
to its eastern part, is proved by the calendar employed therein, _i.e._
the Julian, with the addition of the Chaldean names for the months,
the days of the month being given simply without reference to calends
and nones and ides. The author is well-informed with regard to the
eastern half of the Roman Empire; he knows names and date of death of
eight bishops of Antioch, the name Antioch occurs in all twenty-four
times, Nicomedia is named thirty-two times, but the name of no bishop
of Nicomedia is given, Alexandria is mentioned nineteen times,
Constantinople, Rome, and Jerusalem only twice.
The date of this work is fixed by the mention of the celebrated Bishop
James of Nisibis on the 15th July. He was alive after 350, when the
Persians besieged Nisibis, and flourished, according to the somewhat
vague expression of the Chronicle of Samuel of Ani, in the 283rd
Olympiad, _i.e._ 353-356.[758] Thus the martyrology was written in the
period between 370 and 400, and sometime about 380, when Arianism was the
dominant religion in the eastern half of the empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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