Mar Shemʿon III was the

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 Cath ...

in the early 15th century. There is uncertainty over his existence, his dates and his place in the order of patriarchs. Traditionally, Shemʿon III is listed between patriarchs

Shemʿon II Mar II (sometimes written Shimun II) was the patriarch of the Church of the East from 1385 until 1405. He succeeded Denha II, who died in 1381/2, and his reign corresponds to the beginning of a period of obscurity in the Church of the ...

, whose reign began in 1381/2, and

Eliya IV Mar Eliya IV (or IV) was the patriarch of the Church of the East from 1405 until 1425. His reign falls in a period of obscurity owing to the limited contemporary evidence. He appears in a contemporary list of patriarchs in a 15th-ce ...

, who is said to have died in 1437. A manuscript made in the reign of the Shemʿon who succeeded Eliya IV casts doubt on this reconstruction, however. In a copy of the ''

Book of the Bee __NOTOC__ The ''Book of the Bee'' () is a historiographic and theological compilation, containing numerous Biblical stories. It was written around 1222, by Solomon of Akhlat, who was Bishop of Basra, within the Church of the East. It is written ...

'', a list of patriarchs has been extended from the time of Timothy II to "Shemʿon of our days". The intervening patriarchs are

Denha II Mar Denha II (also written Dinkha II) was patriarch of the Church of the East from 1336/7 to 1381/2. Although no history of his reign has survived, references in a number of Nestorian, Jacobite and Muslim sources provide some details of his pat ...

, a certain Shemʿon and Eliya IV. This can only be Shemʿon II. Manuscript colophons from 1429/30 and 1437 attest to a patriarch named Shemʿon, and David Wilmshurst suggests that this person, along with the "Shemʿon of our days" of the ''Bee'' manuscript, was Shemʿon III, who succeeded Eliya IV around 1425. He dates his patriarchate from c. 1425 to c. 1450.

Jean Maurice Fiey Jean Maurice Fiey (30 March 1914 – 10 November 1995) was a French Dominican Father and prominent Church historian and Syriacist. Biography Fiey was born in Armentières on 30 March 1914, he entered the Dominican Order at an early age and rece ...

went so far as to deny the existence of Shemʿon III entirely. This would give

Shemʿon IV Mar Shemʿon IV Basidi (died 20 February 1497) was the patriarch of the Church of the East in the last quarter of the 15th century. Traditionally his reign is said to have begun in 1437, but this results in an improbably long tenure and has been r ...

(successor of Eliya IV or Shemʿon III, depending on the list) a reign of sixty years or more.

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* * * * {{Patriarchs of the Church of the East 14th-century births 15th-century deaths Patriarchs of the Church of the East 15th-century bishops of the Church of the East