BABAJ THE GREAT. - Nestorian Patriarch. Born in 540 at Bět 'Ajnātā, he was educated under the direction of Abraham of Kaškar (q.v.), founder of the monastery of Monate Ižlā, and later under his successor Dādisō' (q.v.), whom he succeeded in the governance of that "Great Monastery." When in 607 Patriarch Gregory died and Cyrus III forbade the Nestorians to elect a successor, B. administered the affairs of that Church for 17 years without being a bishop. After Cyrus III's death in 628, B. was elected patriarch but preferred to return to the monastery. Ebedjesus' catalogue attributes 84 volumes to him.
His most important work is the one which Ebedjesus titles "On the Union," though in manuscripts it bears other titles. With this work (ed. by A. Vashalde in 1915, in Corp. Scrip. Christ. Orient.), B. provides an exposition of Nestorian doctrine concerning the Incarnation and the Eucharist. Among other writings, he composed commentaries on the Centuries of Evagrius and the sixty chapters that follow, as well as an interesting account of the monk George, martyred in 612, which was published by Bedjan in Hist. de Mar Yabalaha, Paris-Leipzig 1896, pp. 416-571 and translated by O. Braun in Bibl. der Kirchenväter, 37, pp. 221ff. He also wrote a commentary on Scripture, numerous biographies of Nestorians, rules for novices, and canons for monks, as well as many hymns included in the Chaldean Breviary.