Rabban Mar Hormizd ( syc, ܕܪܒܢ ܗܘܪܡܙܕ ) was a monk who lived in the seventh century in modern northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. ''Rabban'' is the

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

term for ''monk''. "Rabban" is also the Aramaic word for "teacher". He founded the

Rabban Hormizd Monastery Rabban Hormizd Monastery ( syr , ܪܒܢ ܗܘܪܡܝܙܕ ܥܓ̰ܡܝܐ) is an important monastery of the Chaldean Catholic Church, founded about 640 AD, carved out in the mountains about 2 miles from Alqosh, Iraq, 28 miles north of Mosul. It was the ...

Alqosh Alqosh ( syr, ܐܲܠܩܘܿܫ, Judeo-Aramaic: אלקוש, ar, ألقوش, alternatively spelled Alkosh or Alqush) is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District and is situated 45 km north of the ...

, named after him, which has served in the past as the patriarchate 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 ...

. In the Church of the East and its descendant branches, Rabban Hormizd is commemorated on the second Sunday after

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

Life

According to ''The histories of Rabban Hormizd the Persian and Rabban Bar-Idta'', a text written by his disciple Simon before the 12th century, Hormizd was born at the end of the sixth or beginning the seventh century at Beth Lapat (in

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

ruled

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

) from a rich or noble family, and at the age of eighteen he started to travel towards

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 ...

to become a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

there. On the way he met three monks of the Church of the East monastery of Bar Idta who urged him to become an inmate of their monastery, and he did so. He lived a hard, stern life. Hormizd lived in and near the Monastery of Bar Idta for thirty-nine years and in the monastery of Abba Abraham of Risha for six or seven years. When Hormizd was sixty-five or sixty-six, he left the monastery and passing out of the country of Marga went and settled down in the mountain of Beth 'Edhrai near the Assyrian town of

. When he had been there some little time the people in the neighbourhood offered to build him a monastery, the present ''

''. The following part of the life of Rabban Hormizd is marked by episodes in which the saint opposed the

miaphysite Miaphysitism is the Christology, Christological doctrine that holds Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, the "Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnate Logos (Christianity), Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (''physis'')." It is a posi ...

monks of the ''

Mar Mattai Monastery Dayro d-Mor Mattai ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܡܬܝ;''The Monastery of St. Matthew'', Arabic, دير مار متى) is a Syriac Orthodox Church monastery on Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq. It is located 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Mosul, ...

''.

Gallery

File:Tomb of Rabban Hormizd.jpg, Tomb of Mar Hormizd in

File:Angamaly Kizhakkeppally.jpg, Mar Hormizd Syro-Malabar Cathedral, Angamaly, built by Mar Abraham,

Metropolitan and Gate of All India Metropolitanate of India (Syriac: ''Beth Hindaye'') was an East Syriac ecclesiastical province of the Church of the East, at least nominally, from the seventh to the sixteenth century. The Malabar region (Kerala) of India had long been home to a t ...

File:Saint Hurmizd cathedral.jpg, The largest

Assyrian church Assyrian Church may refer to: * Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Christian church founded by and composed of ethnic Assyrians entered into communion with Rome. * Assyrian Church of the East, an Eastern Christian church. * Ancient Church of the ...

in Australia, ''St Hurmizd Cathedral'' in Greenfield Park named after Hormizd. File:Rabban Hormoz Church, Urmia.jpg, Rabban Hormoz Church in

Urmia Urmia or Orumiyeh ( fa, ارومیه, Variously transliterated as ''Oroumieh'', ''Oroumiyeh'', ''Orūmīyeh'' and ''Urūmiyeh''.) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran and the capital of Urmia County. It is situated at an alt ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. File:Rabban Hormizd Monastery - view from below (1).jpg,

: is an important

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

of the

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

and the

. File:Rabban Hurmizd from Book of Protection.gif, Mar Hormizd Rabban as depicted in ''

The Book of Protection ''The Book of Protection: Being a Collection of Charms'' is a collection of East Syriac Christian charms and incantations associated with the so-called 'Nestorian' Church (today's Assyrian Church of the East), edited and translated by Hermann Gol ...

''.

Notes

External links

Memorial of Rabban Hormizd - Kaldaya.net
* E. A. Wallis Budge, ''The histories of rabban Hôrmîzd the Persian and rabban Bar-ʻIdtâ''
I, The syriac textes
London 1902 * E. A. Wallis Budge, ''The histories of rabban Hôrmîzd the Persian and rabban Bar-ʻIdtâ''
II/1, English translations
London 1902 * E. A. Wallis Budge, ''The histories of rabban Hôrmîzd the Persian and rabban Bar-ʻIdtâ''
II/2, The metrical life of rabban Hôrmîzd by Mâr Sergius of Âdhôrbâîjân. English translations
London 1902 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabban Hormizd, Saint Assyrian Church of the East saints Persian saints Eastern Catholic saints 7th-century Christian saints 7th-century Christian monks 7th-century Iranian people Christians in the Sasanian Empire People from Khuzestan Province