Maphrian

Maphrian (from 11th century), also: " Metropolitan / Catholicos of the East" (from 6th century), was the title of the head of the Syrian Orthodox, " Jacobite " church in the area of ​​the (former) Persian Empire of the Sasanids . The "anti-Nestorian" Church of the Jacobites in Mesopotamia ( Iraq ) was mainly represented in the area around Tikrit and Mosul . Today the title in its Greek form "Catholicos" is worn by the two heads of the Syrian Orthodox Thomas Christians in India.

history

Organizationally, there was a separation between the western and eastern parts of the Syrian Orthodox Church until the 7th century, according to the competition between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire . It was not until the Arab conquest of Palestine and Mesopotamia (630s) that the Jacobites, on the basis of their monophysite or diplophysite views, united to the doctrine of Christ ; the Maphrian became the representative of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch for the East. He was supposed to be elected by the eastern bishops but from the west. From the former independence "Maphrian" was only retained as an honorary title.

The Maphrian's residence was Tikrit until 1089 , then Mosul , and finally the Mar Mattai monastery (near Mosul).

In the 20th century, the title of Maphrian, which became extinct in the middle of the 19th century, was revived for the Thomas Christians in India. Within the Syrian Orthodox Church it is given to the "Catholicos of India", while the head of the "Indian Orthodox Church" calls himself the "Catholicos of the East".

Significant Maphrian

• Gregorius Bar-Hebraeus (1264-1286)
• Markus bar Qiqi († 1016)

literature

• Klein, Wassilios (ed.), Syrische Kirchenväter (= Urban Tb 587), Stuttgart 2004, p. 243ff;
• Wolfgang Hage: Maphrian . In: Hubert Kaufhold (ed.): Small Lexicon of the Christian Orient . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007, 334f.