Michael the Syrian
| Michael the Syrian | |
|---|---|
| Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church | |
| See | Diocese of Mardin |
| In office | 1166–1199 |
| Predecessor | Athanasius VII bar Qutreh |
| Successor | Athanasius VIII |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1126 Melitene, Danishmend Kingdom |
| Died | 1199 (aged 72–73) Melitene, Sultanate of Rûm |
Michael the Syrian (Syriac: ܡܝܟܐܝܠ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ; died 1199 AD), also known as Michael the Great (ܡܝܟܐܝܠ ܪܒܐ) or Michael Syrus or Michael the Elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, was a patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1166 to 1199. He is best known today as the author of the largest medieval Chronicle, which he composed in Syriac. Various other materials written in his own hand have survived.
The life of Michael is recorded by Bar Hebraeus. He was born ca. 1126 in Melitene (today Malatya), the son of the Priest Eliya (Elias), of the Qindasi family. His uncle, the monk Athanasius, became bishop of Anazarbus in Cilicia in 1136.
At that period Melitene was part of the kingdom of the Turcoman Danishmend dynasty, and, when that realm was divided in two in 1142, it became the capital of one principality. In 1178 it became part of the Sultanate of Rûm. The Jacobite monastery of Mar Bar Sauma was close to the town, and had been the patriarchal seat since the 11th century.
As a child, Michael entered the service of the monastery, and became archimandrite before the age of thirty. He made various improvements to the abbey fabric, including improving the water supply and the defences against raiders. On 18 October 1166 he was elected Patriarch of the Jacobite church, and consecrated in the presence of twenty-eight bishops.
In 1168 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then stayed for a year at Antioch. Both towns were at the time part of the Latin crusader states, and Michael established excellent relations with the crusader lords, especially with Amaury de Nesle, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. Returning to the monastery of Mar Bar Sauma in the summer of 1169, he held a synod and attempted to reform the church, then tainted with simony.
The Byzantine emperor Manual I Comnenos made approaches to him to negotiate a reunion of the churches. But Michael did not trust the Greeks. He refused to go to Constantinople when invited by the emperor, and even refused twice, in 1170 and 1172, to meet his envoy Theorianus, instead sending as his own representative bishop John of Kaishoum and then his disciple Theodore bar Wahbon. In three successive letters to the emperor, he replied with a simple statement of the miaphysite creed of the Jacobites.
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