ATHANASIUS I, GAMMĀL. - Born at Samosata, died in 630-31. He was a monk at Qinneshrin. When he was elected patriarch in 594-95, he was working as a camel driver out of humility in the service of his monastery. Hence the nickname Gammal (camel driver). In 609-10 he brought about the reconciliation between the Monophysites of Syria and those of Egypt, whose relations had been interrupted under the patriarchs Peter of Antioch (578-91) and Damian of Alexandria. At Mabbog (Hierapolis), at the head of 12 bishops, he presented his profession of faith to Heraclius, who however insisted that they accept the Council of Chalcedon and ordered a persecution, in which the Maronites displayed great zeal against the Jacobites (Bar Hebraeus, col. 274). Of A. there survive some writings on the aforementioned reconciliation (Chron. de Michel le Syrien, ed. Chabot, II, Paris 1901, pp. 394-99 and 381-94), a letter to the monks of Mar Mattai near Mosul (ibid., pp. 414-17), and the life of Severus of Antioch preserved in an Ethiopic version and in Coptic fragments derived from it (PO 4, 569 ff.).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccl., ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, I, Louvain 1872, pp. 261-75; Renaudotius, Hist. Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum Iacobit., Paris 1713, pp. 145, 152-53; G. S. Assemani, Bibl. orient., II, Paris 1721, pp. 333-34.

Pietro Sfair

@incollection{ec2_atanasio_i_gammal, author = {Sfair, Pietro}, title = {Atanasio I, gammāl}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {263}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/atanasio-i-gammal} }

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Athanasius I, Gammāl

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