Elisha (Nestorian patriarch)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Elisha was
Patriarch of the Church of the East The Patriarch of the Church of the East (also known as Patriarch of the East, Patriarch of Babylon, the Catholicose of the East or the Grand Metropolitan of the East) is the patriarch, or leader and head bishop (sometimes referred to as Catholic ...
during a period of schism from 524 to 537. Unlike his opponent
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assy ...
, who was also consecrated as catholicus but has traditionally been considered an anti-patriarch, Elisha is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.


Sources

Brief accounts of Elisha's reign are given in the ''Ecclesiastical Chronicle'' of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (''floruit'' 1280) and in the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari (twelfth-century), Amr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century). A long and detailed account of the schism of
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assy ...
and Elisha is given in 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 ...
''.


Elisha's patriarchate

The following account of Elisha's reign is given by Bar Hebraeus:
Shila died after a while in office. Then a schism arose among the bishops. Some of them supported Elisha, the son-in-law of Shila, and consecrated him catholicus in the church of Ctesiphon; while others supported a man called
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assy ...
, and consecrated him catholicus in the great church of Seleucia. Each of them began to appoint bishops for the vacant churches, and ultimately Elisha prevailed with the support of the king and shut up
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assy ...
in a prison.
Narsai Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assy ...
died shortly afterwards, and Elisha began to hope that he would be firmly established in the leadership; but the bishops assembled together and degraded him from his rank. Bar Hebraeus, ''Ecclesiastical Chronicle'' (ed. Abeloos and Lamy), ii. 82


See also

* List of patriarchs of the Church of the East


Notes


References

* Abbeloos, J. B., and Lamy, T. J., ''Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum'' (3 vols, Paris, 1877) * Assemani, J. A., ''De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum'' (Rome, 1775) * Brooks, E. W., ''Eliae Metropolitae Nisibeni Opus Chronologicum'' (Rome, 1910) * Gismondi, H., ''Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria I: Amri et Salibae Textus'' (Rome, 1896) * Gismondi, H., ''Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria II: Maris textus arabicus et versio Latina'' (Rome, 1899) * * Scher, Addai (ed. and tr.). ''Histoire nestorienne inédite: Chronique de Séert. Première partie.'' ''
Patrologia Orientalis The ''Patrologia Orientalis'' is an attempt to create a comprehensive collection of the writings by eastern Church Fathers in Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, Coptic, Ge'ez, Georgian, and Slavonic, published with a Latin, English, Italian or mostly Fre ...
'
4.3 (1908)5.2 (1910)
*Scher, Addai (ed. and tr.). ''Histoire nestorienne inédite: Chronique de Séert. Seconde partie.'' ''Patrologia Orientalis'
7.2 (1911)13.4 (1919)
*


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elisha Patriarchs of the Church of the East 6th-century bishops of the Church of the East Christians in the Sasanian Empire