Jacob of Saruq

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Jacob of Sarug[1] (born at Kurtam, 451, probably in the district of Sarugh, the son of a priest; died at Batnan 29 November 521) was a writer of the Syrian Church, described as "the flute of the Holy Spirit and the harp of the believing church".

Three biographies of him are extant in Syriac: one by James of Edessa (seventh century), the second anonymous, and the third by a certain George, probably George, Bishop of Sarugh, contemporary of James of Edessa.

We do not know where he was educated, nor when and how he was ordained to the priesthood. He became "periodeutes" or "chorepiscopus" of Haura in the district of Sarugh, whence in 502 he wrote to the city of Edessa, threatened by the Persians, and in 519 to the Christians of Najran: in 519 he became Bishop of Batnan, the chief city of Sarugh.

Assemani[2] has endeavoured to prove (against Renaudot) the orthodoxy of Jacob of Saruq, but from letters to the monks of the convent of Mar-Bassus[3] it is evident that he was always a Monophysite and continued such to his death. However, he took practically no share in the Christological polemics of his time and devoted his activity to study and literature.

He is especially famous for his metrical homilies in the dodecasyllabic verse of which, says Bar-Hebraeus, he composed seven hundred and sixty. Of these barely one-half has come down to us, and a few only have heen published, e.g. on Simeon Stylites[4], on virginity, fornication, etc.[5], two on the Blessed Virgin Mary[6], on the chariot of Ezechiel[7] He wrote the first homily (on Ezechiel's chariot) when only twenty-two years of age.

His prose writings were comparatively few. The most important besides the letters already mentioned are a letter to Paul of Edessa of 519, a letter to the pantheist Stephen Bar Sudaili published by Frothingham[8], a liturgy[9], an order of baptism[10], festal homilies[11].

[edit] References

  • Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature (London, 1894)
  • Duval, La litterature Syriaque, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1907), pp. 351-854
  • Assemani, Bibliotheca Orieritalis, I, c. XXVII.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ James of Sarugh.
  2. ^ Bibliotheca Orientalis, I, 290 sq.
  3. ^ Published by Martin in the "Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenl. Gesellschaft", XXX. 217 sqq.
  4. ^ Assemani, "Acta Martyrum", Il. 230 sqq.
  5. ^ In Overbeck, "S. Ephraemi Syri ... opera selecta", pp. 385 sq.
  6. ^ In Abbeloos, "De vita et scriptis S. Jacobi Sarugensis", Louvain, 1867.
  7. ^ In Moesinger, "Monum. Syr.", II.
  8. ^ "Stephen Bar-Sudaili. etc.", Leyden, 1886, p. 10 sqq.
  9. ^ Tr. Renaudot, "Liturg. Orient. Collectio", II, 356.
  10. ^ Ed. and tr. Assemani, "Cod. Liturg. Eccl. Univ.", II, 309, III, 184.
  11. ^ Ger. tr. Pius Zingerle, "Sechs Hom. d. heil. Jacob v. Sarug", 1867.

[edit] External links

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.


Category;Christian writers