Polycarpus Augin Aydın

Polycarpus Augin Aydın

Mor Polycarpus Augin Aydın ( Aramaic ܡܪܝ ܦܘܠܝܩܪܦܘܣ ܐܘܓܝܢ ܐܝܕܝܢ; * June 10, 1971 in Gundukschukro near Nusaybin ; born as Edip Aydin ) is the incumbent Metropolitan and Patriarchal Vicar of the Syrian Orthodox Diocese of the Netherlands .

Aydın resides in the monastery of St. Ephrem the Syrians in Glane, the Netherlands.

Life

Polycarpus Augin Aydın was born under the name Edip Aydin to a Syrian Orthodox family in the small village of Gundukschukro near Nusaybin in Turkey. Above all, the sincere and intense faith of his parents had a great influence on his future. In his younger years he attended both the church school, where he learned Aramaic and the Syrian Orthodox liturgy , and the regular Turkish village school. After completing elementary school at the age of twelve, he continued his studies in the seminary of the Mor Gabriel monastery near Midyataway. During the seminar he deepened his knowledge of classical Syriac. He was also taught in Syrian theology , tradition, and liturgy. Around 30 other students from various towns and villages in Tur Abdin studied with him . At the same time he continued his further education at the state school in Midyat. Aydin spent six years in the Mor Gabriel Monastery, during which he fully participated in monastic life. Prayer, fasting and other everyday activities with the nuns and monks are said to have shaped him a lot during this time. In one of his final years in the seminary, he was ordained a subdeacon . After his training in the monastery, he was sent to England by Timotheus Samuel Aktaş , Archbishop of Tur Abdin , to study there. There Aydin lived for several months with the Anglican Benedictine Congregation Alton Abbey in Hampshire to take part in the common spiritual life. Then he began studying theology at Heythrop College, University of London . In 1995 he successfully completed his studies with a bachelor's degree in theology. During his studies he lived with Carmelites and was given the opportunity to deepen his prayer life and to discuss theological topics. He then spent a year as a visiting student at the Oriental Institute at Oxford University , followed by the Master of Syriac Studies under the direction of Professor Sebastian Brock. During his stay in Oxford he began translating the book "The Bible in the Syriac Tradition" (Gorgias Press, 2002; ISBN 1-59333-300-5 ) by Professor Sebastian Brock into Syriac. He also studied the West Syrian writers of the 20th century who contributed to the renewal of the Syrian language and literature. During his studies in Oxford he lived in the Campion Hall of the Jesuit community there. After studying for three years at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York , he received a Master of Divinity degree in 2000 . The title of his work was: The History of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch in North America: Challenges and Opportunities .

On October 7, 2001, Aydın received the tonsure as a monk from Patriarch Mor Ignatius Zakka Iwas in St. Ephrems Monastery in Damascus and the name Augin, in honor of Mor Augin from Tur Izlo. A year later, on August 4, 2002, he was ordained a priest in the Mor Gabriel Monastery by Timotheos Samuel Aktaş . By 2011 he was doing his PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary in the field of early church history and ecumenism under the direction of Professor Kathleen McVey . The topic of his dissertation, which he published in the summer of 2017, was: Comparison of the Syrian rite of monastic profession (tekso d-suforo) with the rite of baptism (tekso da'modo) in external structure and theological topics .

On April 15, 2007 the Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I. consecrated Iwas Raban Augin Aydin to the Metropolitan with the name Polycarpus in the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Saidnaya .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Archbishop Polycarpus Augin Aydin. In: Morephrem.con. Accessed April 14, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Julius Yeshu Çiçek	Syrian Orthodox Bishop of the Netherlands since 2007	-