Isaac of Nineveh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Isaac of Nineveh (d. c. 700) also remembered as Isaac the Syrian and Isaac Cyrus was a Nestorian bishop and theologian best remembered for his written work. He was born in the region of Qatar in the Persian Gulf. When still quite young, he and his brother entered a monastery, where he gained considerable renown as a teacher and came to the attention of the catholicos George, who ordained him Bishop of Nineveh far to the north. The administrative duties did not suit his retiring and ascetic bent: he requested to abdicate after only five months, and went south to the wilderness of Mount Matout, a refuge for anchorites. There he lived in solitude for many years, eating only three loaves a week with some vegetables, uncooked, a detail that never failed to astonish his hagiographers. Eventually blindness and old age forced him to retire to the monastery of Shabar, where he died and was buried. At the time of his death he was nearly blind, a fact that some attribute to his devotion to study.

Isaac is remembered for his spiritual homilies on the inner life, which lend themselves to excerpting and have a human breadth that transcends his perhaps Nestorian Christianity. They survive in early Syriac and Arabic manuscripts and in Greek translations. From Greek they were translated into Russian.

Isaac consciously avoided to write on topics that were disputed or discussed in the contemporary theological debates. This gives Isaac a certain ecumenical potential, and is probably the reason that although he was faithful to his own tradition he has come to be venerated and appreciated far outside his own "Nestorian" church.