A Syriac Life of Philoxenus

A Syriac Life of Philoxenus

Philoxenus of Mabbug

c. AD 440–523

A short life of Philoxenus found in a Syriac manuscript, translated by Alphonse Mingana in 1920. It tells of his birth in Beth Garmai, his training, his bishopric at Mabbug, and his exile.

A Syriac Notice of the Life of Philoxenus

This Mar Akhsnaya, who is Philoxenus of Mabbūg, city of priests, was in his terrestrial origin from the province of Beith Garmay, in the East, and from the village of Tahl. His brother, called Addai, was teacher in his village. It happened that one day his parents, with all his family, left their country and came to live in Tur `Abdin, in the mountain of Beith Réshé. They dwelt in the possession of the great tower of Haitam, their precise residence being a small plot of ground near Beith Sabrina, northwards between this village and Beith Zriza of `Arabân. They built houses for themselves in this ground and lived in them. When the little Akhsnaya grew up and knew how to read, he began to study the sacred books and learned to distinguish between good and evil. Under the impulse of the divine grace Mar Akhsnaya parted from his relations to the distance of one mile, built for himself a shed of stones, and lived in it for a certain time in peace and in the service of God.

When several monks from the monasteries of the mountains of Kardu passed close to him, on their journey to the monastery of Kartamin founded by angels, he was much pleased, received them with joy and entertained them in his divine faith. He accompanied them afterwards to the monastery of Kartamin. All of them prayed there and were blessed by the saints (of the monastery). Mar Akhsnaya wished to enter this monastery, and he learned there perfectly all divine science, in Syriac and in Greek. He succeeded so well that he became teacher in the school of the monastery and of the neighbouring districts. For a short interval of time he was called Magister Doctorum, and was praised by the professors of all countries on account of his application and his science in the divine books of both Testaments. From thence he went to Western countries, travelled to convents and monasteries, and reached the monastery of 'Tel'eda, which was richer in professors, students and exegetes than all other monasteries of the East and the West.

There he perfected himself in the Greek and in the Syriac languages, and he translated both Testaments, the Old and the New, the Old (Testament) according to the Septuagint,which he compared with the Syriac Version ( = Pshitta ?). Jacob of Edessa says: "He made an excellent version which has no equal in the Church." He translated, too, several books of the Fathers in a solid manner with great care and much diligence. His fame spread all over the Church and he was honoured by all the bishops because of his science. For this reason he was elected to be the bishop of the holy town of Mabbūg,which, on account of the great number of priests and doctors that it produced, was called city of priests (Hierapolis). The town of Mabbūg was pleased with him, and prouder of his teaching than all the other towns of other countries. He opened in this town an immense treasure of doctrine, and filled it with spiritual riches. He composed, first of all, excellent homilies on the commemorative feasts of our Lord, and on all the Dispensation of Christ. He wrote five other books of discourses which enlighten, by means of the Holy Spirit, all those who read them. He wrote six books against the heresy of Nestorius and of Barsauma of Nisibis,and disclosed all the falsehood of the Nestorians by proving that they were "new Jews" and "ancient Pagans." He wrote thirteen books against the heretic Chalcedonians, and unveiled to the orthodox all their craftiness. He wrote an instruction to the monks, and ten books saturated with spiritual thoughts. He wrote twenty-two books of epistles addressed to all classes of people. The number of all the books that he wrote in the course of his life amounts to one hundred and seventy volumes of divine doctrine, which illuminated all Christendom with the orthodox people of all countries.

In one of his letters addressed to John Sa`ara, metropolitan of Amid, he writes as follows: "I love thee and I am thy colleague of the holy monastery of Kartamin ; I am weak (in science), but thy holiness is strong. In a time like this it was necessary to have a man like thee in God's Church, thee whose education has been made in the monastery of my spiritual Fathers, wherefrom thou hast been called. All the ancient doctors were brought up in this angelic monastery. It is there that I have been myself brought up, though I was unhappily not perfected by its teaching in a complete manner. It is true that, in body, I am now far from my spiritual and perfect and holy Fathers, but in spirit I am nearer to them." Many sentences like these were written by him and sent to remote countries, especially to Gurzanites and to the people of the interior of Persia. In his letters to Abu Hafarof Hira of Nu`mân, and in those written to the Himyarites and to the inhabitants of Nijran, in which he speaks of the error of the heretics and confirms the orthodox in their faith.

He had caused the inhabitants of Antioeh to follow the order of Zeno, the faithful king (and he caused them also) to vote for the nomination of Mar Severus to the Patriarchate of Antioch and all Syria as far as India. When, then, Mar Severus was elected and arrived, Mar Philoxenus, with eleven other bishops, ordained him in the big town of Tyre, which is at the seashore and which had been built by King Hiram. Afterwards (Mar Severus) entered Antioch and occupied his see during six years and a half. Then the Chalcedonians persecuted cruelly the orthodox people, and Mar Severus escaped from them by going to Egypt. Mar Akhsnaya was seized by the perverse Greeks, who incarcerated him during five years and made him suffer all sorts of torments. He covered them every day with shame, and they were not converted, but they inflicted on him tribulation, pain, anguish and ill-treatment, which he endured with the courage of martyrs and true confessors. After these five years, he was conducted to the town of Gangra, and there imprisoned in a high house above the oven of a bath. All the openings of the house were closed in order that he might be asphyxiated. He migrated to his Lord with the crown of victory. May his prayer be with us. Amen. Mar Akhsnaya was crowned on the tenth of December.

Now his nephew was with him from the beginning of the persecution directed against him. He bribed the persecuting Greeks by means of much money; he stole and brought the treasure of the body of Mar Akhsnaya, his uncle, to the town of Mabbūg. It was laid in an urn of marble and placed in the church that Philoxenus himself had erected. The nephew instituted three feasts for him, the first for the day of his death, the second for the day of his sepulture, and the third for his episcopal coronation. After a time his nephew was nominated to the see of his uncle, and lived in his diocese in great persecution and migrated to his Lord. May their prayers be with us. After a long time, the town of Mabbūg was destroyed in the wars between Greek and Arab kings. When the Arabs owned the seashore, the members of Mar Akhsnaya's family took the head (the body?) of the saint, and arrived at Tur `Abdin. They built a church in a village called Mediad, and there they laid the body of Mar Akhsnaya. This village of Mediad is near the monastery of Mar Habel the Stylite, who, at the time when Mar Akhsnaya was going to the Western countries for the purpose of studying and enlightening himself, caused the top of the column of stones on which he was living to bend to the ground. On that occasion both saints gave each other a mutual greeting. This was a great miracle for their glorious life.

When Mar Habel died a good death, he was buried and placed in his monastery in the castra of Mediad. After a short time, the body of St. Abraham, the master of Barsaumas, the head of the Anchorets (Abîlé) was also brought to the monastery of Mar Habel. A big sanctuary has been erected to him, below the small one. The sanctuary of Mar Habel became then a Beith Kaddishe, and a baptistery, and that of Mar Abraham became the real sanctuary. The monastery has been called, and is also called in our days: Monastery of Mar Abraham, belonging to the family of Mar Gabriel of Kartamin. The head of Mar Akhsnaya is down to our time in the church of the village of Mediad. ...