bishops also lay on their hands. The Metropolitan of Edessa celebrates the holy liturgy, he of Meliṭine reads the gospel, and he of Bar Ṣalībi the other lesson. He of Kīshum proclaims the Patriarch, he of Giḥun and he of Gubos say the prayers.[1] In the past there are many cases of the Mafrian and other bishops ordaining to the episcopate,[2] and once each bishop consecrated his own chrism.[3] But now for centuries (apparently since the time of Barhebræus) the Patriarch alone ordains all bishops and blesses the chrism for all Jacobites.[4]
The first Patriarch to change his name for Ignatius was Ignatius III (formerly Joshua, 1264-1282).[5] Since Ignatius V (Bar Wahīb of Mardīn in 1292, p. 333) all Jacobite Patriarchs take this name in memory of the great martyr-bishop of Antioch, who, by the way, was certainly not a Monophysite.[6]
The seat of the Patriarch has varied considerably (p. 328). Ignatius VI (Ismael, 1333-1366) was the first to reside at Ṭur 'Abdīn.[7] Now he generally resides at Diyārbakr or Mardīn; but the church of Dair Za'farān (five miles east of Mardīn) is counted as his Patriarchal church.[8] Indeed, although his real title is, of course, Antioch, he is now commonly called "the Patriarch of Za'farān." The present Jacobite Patriarch is Lord Ignatius 'Abdullah Sattuf. His Holiness was born at Ṣadad, a village about six hours south of Ḥomṣ, where many Jacobites live. His original name is 'Abdullah Sattuf. Having entered a monastery, he became Bishop of Ḥomṣ and Ḥama, taking the name Gregory. Then he was Metropolitan of Diyārbakr. He came once to England (as Bishop of Ḥomṣ and Ḥama), collected money and imbibed here some Protestantizing ideas. He also went to look after his co-religionists on the Malabar coast, and there fraternized
- ↑ Barhebræus, i. 542.
- ↑ Barhebræus says that in 629 the Patriarch refused to ordain the Mafrian, because a canon of Nicæa says that his own suffragans should do so! (ii. 122).
- ↑ Bibl. Orient. ii. (Diss. de Mon. viii. for vii.).
- ↑ Ib.
- ↑ Ib. i. 750.
- ↑ E.g. ad Smyrn. iv. 2: "I bear all things, sustained by him who became a perfect man." St. Ignatius is particularly indignant with Docetism (ib. v.), of which Monophysism was a kind of revival.
- ↑ Barhebræus, i. 802.
- ↑ For a description of this, see O. H. Parry: Six Months in a Syrian Monastery (London, 1895), 103-111.
