ABRAHAM OF QIDONA (or of BETH QIDONA). - Born in A.D. 206 into a wealthy family, he consented to marriage under parental pressure. After the wedding, he fled and went to live in a cell two miles from the city. The bishop of Edessa conferred holy orders upon him and sent him to convert the large and very resistant idolatrous village of Beth Qidonâ, from which he took his name. However, after a year, he returned to the hermitage. According to the British Museum ms. Add. 12,155, fol. 177, A. died in 366, and according to the Acts, at the age of 70, having lived 50 years as a religious.
BIBL.: P. Bedjan, Acta mart. et sanct., VII, Paris 1866, pp. 465 ff. (Syriac Acts); J. T. Lamy, Analecta Bolland., 10 (1891), pp. 5-49 (prolegomena and Syriac Acts); id., S. Ephraem Syri hymni et serm., III, Malines 1889, pp. XL-XLIII, and cols. 750-836 (prolegomena and 15 hymns of St. Ephrem); IV, 11, 1902, cols. 1-12 (prol.) and 13-84 (Syriac Acts with Latin translation and variants); PL 73, 281-294 and 651-66 (Latin Acts); W. Budge, The Book of Paradise, London 1904, p. 1009.