Dadishoʿ (528/9–604) was a monk and author of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

. He was the second abbot of the great monastery of

Mount Izla Mount Izla ( syr, ܛܘܪ ܐܝܙܠܐ ''Ṭūr Īzlā' ''),Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Izla — ܛܘܪܐ ܕܐܝܙܠܐ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified January 14, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/100. also Mountain of Nisibis or briefly ...

after its founder,

Abraham of Kashkar Abraham (Mar Oraham) of Kashkar was a legendary primate of the Church of the East, from the family of James, brother of Jesus, Jacob, the brother of Jesus, who is conventionally believed to have sat from 159 to 171. There are historical doubts abou ...

. Giuseppe Assemani conflated him with Dadishoʿ Qaṭraya, who lived a century later. The biography of Dadishoʿ written by his successor as abbot,

Babai the Great Babai the Great ( , c. 551 – 628) was an early church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a systematic way. He served as a ...

, is lost, but it was used as a source for

Ishoʿdnaḥ Ishoʿdnaḥ ( syr, ܝܫܘܥܕܢܚ; fl. 9th century) was a historian and hagiographer of the Church of the East who served as the metropolitan bishop of Mayshan at Baṣra. Some manuscripts refer to him as metropolitan of the diocese of Qasra, b ...

's ''Book of Chastity'' (8th century) and

Thomas of Marga Thomas of Marga, ( syc, ܬܐܘܡܐ ܒܪ ܝܥܩܘܒ, ') was an East Syriac bishop and author of an important monastic history in Syriac, who flourished in the 9th century CE. He was born early in the century in the region of Salakh to the north-east ...

's ''Book of Governors'' (9th century). According to Ishoʿdnaḥ, his family came from

Beth Aramaye Asoristan ( pal, wikt:𐭠𐭮𐭥𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭭, 𐭠𐭮𐭥𐭥𐭮𐭲𐭭 ''Asōristān'', ''Āsūristān'') was the name of the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian province of Assyria and Babylonia from 226 to 637. Name The Parthian language, Par ...

, but Babai says in another work that they were from

Beth Daraye Beth Daraye (meaning "land of Dara"), known in Arabic sources as Badaraya, was a region and administrative site southeast of the lower Nahrawan Canal, in the Sasanian province of Asoristan in present-day Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, transli ...

. In his youth, he studied in the

school of Nisibis The School of Nisibis ( syr, ܐܣܟܘܠܐ ܕܢܨܝܒܝܢ, for a time absorbed into the School of Edessa) was an educational establishment in Nisibis (now Nusaybin, Turkey). It was an important spiritual centre of the early Church of the East, and ...

and later that of Arbela. Upon completing his formal education, he went into the mountains of

Adiabene Adiabene was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Ni ...

to live as an

anchorite In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...

. In Adiabene, Dadishoʿ was joined by several disciples, including Sahrowai, the future bishop of Arzun. He moved to the diocese of Marga and lived seven years in the monastery of Risha under Abbot Stephen the Great. He was one of Abraham of Kashkar's first disciples at Mount Izla, which is why he was chosen as Abraham's successor. Later sources, however, do not treat him as one of Abraham's spiritual children. According to Ishoʿdnaḥ, he governed the monastery as ''rišdayra'' (leader of the community) for only three months after the death of Abraham in 588. His rule is ignored completely in the ''

Khuzistan Chronicle The ''Chronicle of Khuzestan'' (also spelled ''Khuzistan'') is an anonymous 7th-century Nestorian Christian chronicle. Written in Syriac, it covers the period from the reign of the Sasanian ruler Hormizd IV () to the fall of the Sasanian Empire ( ...

''. He died at the age of 75 in the year 604, as shown by the ''

Chronicle of Seert The ''Chronicle of Seert'', sometimes called the , is an ecclesiastical history written in Arabic by an anonymous Nestorian writer, at an unknown date between the ninth and the eleventh century. There are grounds for believing that it is the wor ...

''. He was regarded as a saint. Eastern saints' calendars list him among the founders of Mount Izla. Thomas of Marga called him "meek and lowly". Dadishoʿ extended and completed the monastic rule written by his predecessor. He took it in a more centralizing and

cenobitic Cenobitic (or coenobitic) monasticism is a monastery, monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West the community belongs to a religious order, and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a Monastic rule, religious ru ...

direction. It is preserved in the '' Synodicon Orientale''.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *{{cite book , authorlink=Arthur Võõbus , first=Arthur , last=Võõbus , title=Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding Legislation Relative to Syrian Asceticism , publisher=Estonian Theological Society in Exile , year=1960 , location=Stockholm 520s births 604 deaths Church of the East writers Syriac Christians Syriac writers Christians in the Sasanian Empire