Sergius of Samarkand, also known as Mār Sargīs or Mar Sergius, was an ascetic and missionary of the "

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...

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 ...

whom the Nestorian Christians considered a major saint. His name is associated with numerous locations in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. Not much is known about his life except that he had retreated to the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

and, according to

Mari ibn Suleiman Mari ibn Suleiman or Sulaiman ( ar, ماري إبن سليمان) was a 12th-century Nestorian Christian author writing in Arabic. Nothing is known of his life. He is the author of a theological and historiographical work known as the Book of the ...

's ''Book of the Tower'' and a letter written in about 1009 by Abdishō, the Metropolitan of Merv, to the Nestorian Patriarch John in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, Mar Sergius is responsible for the conversion of the

Keraites The Keraites (also ''Kerait, Kereit, Khereid''; ; ) were one of the five dominant Mongol or Turkic tribal confederations (khanates) in the Altai-Sayan region during the 12th century. They had converted to the Church of the East (Nestorianism) i ...

Conversion legend

The Keraites' conversion to East Syriac Christianity around the year 1007 AD was recorded in the 12th-century ''Book of the Tower'' by

, and the 13th-century by

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus ( syc, ܓܪܝܓܘܪܝܘܣ ܒܪ ܥܒܪܝܐ, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Bar Ebraya or Bar Ebroyo, and also by a Latinized name Abulpharagius, was an Aramean Maphrian (regional primat ...

: wrote in ''Christians in Asia before 1500'': "The name of the Christian saint he

he king He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

met is given as Mar Sergius, who, as we know, hailed from

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

and who became a very popular saint in Central and East Asia, various monasteries being dedicated to him."

References

{{Reflist Assyrian Church of the East saints Members of the Assyrian Church of the East Christian ascetics Christian missionaries in Central Asia People from Samarkand Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown

Conversion legend

See also

References