Athanasius I, Gammāl

ATANASIO I, GAMMĀL. - Born at Samosata, died in 630-31. He was a monk at Qinnešrin. When he was elected patriarch in 594-95, he served as a camel-driver out of humility in the service of his monastery. Hence the nickname Gammal (camel-driver). In 609-10 he effected the reconciliation between the Monophysites of Syria and those of Egypt, whose relations had been interrupted under the patriarchs Pietro of Antiochia (578-91) and Damiano of Alessandria. At Mabbog (Gerapoli), at the head of 12 bishops, he presented his profession of faith to Eraclio, who nevertheless insisted that they accept the Council of Chalcedon and ordered a persecution, in which the Maronites displayed great zeal against the Jacobites (Bar Ebreo, col. 274). Of A. there remain some writings on the aforementioned reconciliation (Chron. de Michel le Syrien, ed. Chabot, II, Parigi 1901, pp. 394-99 and 381-94), a letter to the monks of Mar Mattai near Mossul (ibid., pp. 414-17), and the life of Severo of Antiochia, preserved in an Ethiopic version and in Coptic fragments derived from it (PO 4, 569 sg.).