Elias II was the
Patriarch of Jerusalem in 770–797. He was patriarch during the reign of Caliph
Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
and during the
Arab tribal wars in
Palestine between the late 780s and 796. His rule saw the plundering of the St. Chariton Monastery and the assault on the
Mar Saba Monastery, in which some twenty monks were killed by tribal marauders. Prior to these attacks, Elias II penned and sent a letter to the
Patriarch of Constantinople
The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...
, known as the "reply of the Patriarchates in the East", in which he lamented the plight the Christians faced in his jurisdiction.
[Gil 1997, p. 458.]
References
Bibliography
*
8th-century patriarchs of Jerusalem
Palestine under the Abbasid Caliphate
Melkites in the Abbasid Caliphate
797 deaths
{{EarlyChurch-bishop-stub