Abraham the Great of Kashkar was the father of the Assyrian

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

revival in the 6th century. He is a doctor and

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

of the

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East,, ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية sometimes called Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East,; ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية الرسول� ...

. He was born in

Kashkar Kashkar, also known as Kaskar, ( syc, ܟܫܟܪ), was a city in southern Mesopotamia. Its name appears to originate from Syriac ' meaning "citadel" or "town". Other sources connect it to ' "farming". It was originally built on the Tigris, across th ...

in Persia around 492. He left there to preach the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

Al-Hirah Al-Hirah ( ar, الحيرة, translit=al-Ḥīra Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of I ...

, leaving there to study monastic life at

Scetes Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt dep ...

. Monasticism was very popular in early Syrian and Mesopotamian

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. Some held the view that only a life of

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...

could lead to salvation. Initially, all monks and nuns were

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

s, but in about 350

Mar Awgin Mar Awgin or Awgen (died 363 AD), also known as Awgin of Clysma or Saint Eugenios, was an Egyptian monk who, according to traditional accounts, introduced Christian monasticism to Syriac Christianity. These accounts, however, are all of late o ...

founded the first

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 ...

monastery of Mesopotamia on

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 ...

above the city

Nisibis Nusaybin (; '; ar, نُصَيْبِيْن, translit=Nuṣaybīn; syr, ܢܨܝܒܝܢ, translit=Nṣībīn), historically known as Nisibis () or Nesbin, is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009 and is ...

, patterned upon the Egyptian model. Soon there were many monasteries. But at the synod of Beth Lapat the

decided that all monks and nuns should marry. Obviously, this was in order to please the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

rulers, who held family life sacred. The decision severely weakened the church. The decision was reverted in 553. In 571 Abraham founded and governed a new monastery on Mt. Izla. This became the famous monastery called the "Great Convent". The rules he established in 571 were published with those of

Dadisho Mar Dadishoʿ was Catholicose of the East from 421 AD to 456 AD. During his reign as Catholicos, in 424 AD, the Church of the East declared itself independent of all other churches, resulting in Mar Dadishoʿ taking the title of Patriarch T ...

, his successor (588-604). Abraham died in 586. The third abbot of this monastery was his student

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 ...

(551–628), who succeeded Mar Dadisho.Kitchen, Robert A., "Babai the Great", ''The Orthodox Christian World'', (Augustine Casiday, ed.), Chap. 21, Routledge, 2012
Born to a family of humble means,Bundy, David and Norris, Frederick w. Norris. "Babai the Great", ''Encyclopedia of Early Christianity'', Volume 1, (Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh, Frederick W. Norris, ed.), Taylor & Francis, 1998
Abraham's

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is celebrated on the 6th Friday after

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

Notes

References

Holweck, F. G. Frederick George Holweck (born Friedrich Georg Holweck; 29 December 1856 – 15 February 1927) was a German-American Catholic parish priest and scholar, hagiographer and church historian. Monsignor Holweck contributed some articles to the ''Catho ...

, ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints''. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co. 1924. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham The Great Of Kashkar 490s births 586 deaths 6th-century Iranian people Monks of the Church of the East Assyrian Church of the East saints Egyptian Christian monks 6th-century Christian saints Christians in the Sasanian Empire