Michael the Syrian

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Michael the Syrian , Michael Syrus or Michael the Great (* 1126 in Melitene, today Battalgazi ; † November 7, 1199 ) was a patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church .

In the difficult times of the Crusades , he managed to keep his church organized. As a subject of Muslim rulers, he repeatedly turned down invitations from the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos ; Probably for dogmatic reasons, too, he was not interested in getting closer to the Byzantine imperial church . Michael was in dialogue with Muslim scholars and maintained good relations with the Armenian Church.

Michael wrote books on liturgy and dogmatics , but the most important work is his world chronicle .

World chronicle

The world chronicle goes back to the year 1194/95 and was divided into three sections: Church history and profane history messages as well as other news. Michael also relied on sources that have been completely or largely lost today, including the Chronicle of Theophilos of Edessa . The World Chronicle contains a version of the Testimonium Flavianum that is possibly closer to the original than the standard version or the version of Agapios of Hierapolis . The description, arranged according to chronological aspects, should also point to the meaningful work of God: God help the believers, but where sins are committed, misfortune and catastrophes occur. The work is one of the most extensive chronicles of the time. It was not known in Europe until the 18th century, and French translations of Armenian manuscripts were available in the mid-19th century ( Édouard Dulaurier and Victor Langlois ). The first translation from Syrian into French was made between 1899 and 1910 by Jean-Baptiste Chabot .

In addition to historical and socio-economic reports, Michael's World Chronicle is rich in astronomical, meteorological and other natural history descriptions. For example, it is mysteriously claimed for the years 537 and 538 that there was a “sign in the sun”, that for 18 months it barely shone and no more fruit ripened and the wine tasted sour. Investigations of the dendrochronology actually show a weather anomaly .

literature

Remarks

  1. Alice Whealey: The Testimonium Flavianum in Syriac and Arabic. In: New Testament Studies 54, 2008, pp. 573-590. doi : 10.1017 / S0028688508000301
predecessor Office successor
Athanasios VII bar Qutreh Patriarch of Antioch
1166–1199
Athanasios VIII.