Edessa ('Edessa)

EDESSA ('Edessa). - Originally Orhai, whence the name Osroene for the region of which it was the capital, it was situated to the northwest of Mesopotamia on the river Scirtus; by the Arabs it was called ar-Ruhā, today Urfa. It was founded by King Seleucus I, who gave it the name of the Macedonian city of the same name; Antiochus IV called it Antioch "near Callirrhoe." It was the capital of Osroene from 137 B.C. to 216 A.D. Having become Roman under Pompey, it was then contested in the Roman-Parthian wars until in 217 it became a Roman colony. Caracalla was killed there in 217. Destroyed by an earthquake, it was rebuilt by the emperor Justin I, who called it Justinopolis. In 609 it was captured by the Persians. In 1097 Godfrey of Bouillon raised it to a county, and counts succeeded one another there until 1144. After passing from the Mongols of Hūlāgū to the Muslims of Egypt, it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1637. Among its 15 sovereigns, who bore the title of abgar, the one of the abgar Ukkāmā is known for the Christian legend concerning him (v. ADDAI, DOCTRINE of). Nicola Turchi

I. CHRISTIANITY IN EDESSA

Leaving aside the legends of Abgar (v.) and of Addai, it must be held that Christianity, probably introduced in apostolic times, was already organized in E. by the middle of the 2nd century. Besides the testimony of the epitaph of Abercius, Eusebius (Hist. eccl., V, 23) gives us notice of a Synod of Osroene around 197, which sent a letter on the controversy of Easter. The opinion that King Abgar IX (179-216) and the court became Christians is unfounded. It is certain that around that time E. received from Serapion of Antioch the first catholic bishop, Paiût. With this consecration the Church of E. enters the orbit of the Greek Churches, it which probably until then had formed part of the Jewish-Christian current.

E. became the center of irradiation of Christianity in eastern Syria and therefore also in Persia during the 3rd century. Its Aramaic dialect, that is, literary Syriac, served for the direct Syriac version of the Old Testament called péšitá, which probably saw the light there around the beginning of the Christian era. Later Tatian composed in Syriac, perhaps there itself, his Diatessaron. The persecutions of Decius and of Diocletian produced in E. martyrs among whom are to be remembered: Sarbī, Gūrā, Sēmānā, and Habbīb. At the Council of Nicaea participated Ajullāhā (Ethiopia), bishop of E. During the 4th century the Edessene Church was illustrated by the work of St. Ephrem (v.). The Christological controversies brought grave disturbances into the Church of E.: to Rabbūlā (412-35), strenuous defender of orthodoxy, succeeded Hibā (435-57), absolved by the Council of Chalcedon, but author of the letter to Mārī condemned in the Fifth Ecumenical Council. With Jacob Baradaeus, however (541-78), Monophysitism established itself there and from then on there was almost always in E. a double hierarchy (Monophysite and Orthodox). Of the Latin hierarchy established there at the time of the Crusades there remains as a memory the present titular metropolitan see of E. of Osroene. A similar see, likewise titular, exists there for the Catholic Syrians. Few are the Latins (cared for by the Capuchins) and few also the Maronites, Chaldeans and Catholic Armenians.

For the Christian monuments of E., v. OSROENE.

II. SCHOOL OF EDESSA

It is the direct daughter of the ancient school of Nisibis (v.) and the mother of the new Nisibene school. When in 363 Jovian ceded Nisibis to the Persians, part of the Christian population went toward the East; thus the school founded by James of Nisibis under the direction of St. Ephrem went to Edessa, where, from its origin, it was called the school of the Persians, or of Edessa. St. Ephrem directed it from 363 to 373; he was succeeded by Qijōrē as director and interpreter, who governed it until 437; after his death the whole assembly asked for Narsai, because there was no one who could compete with him in expertise and doctrine (PO 4, 382-83). The school of Edessa took a very active part in the Christological controversies of the 5th century, and under the episcopate of Hiba (453-57) it became a hotbed of Nestorianism.

In 457, under the episcopate of Nonus, the Monophysites regained the upper hand and the Nestorians, predominantly of Persian origin, returned to Nisibis and reconstituted their ancient school. In 480, at the instigation of the bishop Cyrus, the school was destroyed by order of the emperor Zeno.

The rules of the new school of Nisibis (496) have come down to us, and they probably faithfully reflect those of the school of Edessa. A monastic life was led there, directed by a superior and a steward. The subjects taught there were: literature, writing, chanting and commentary on Sacred Scripture; the Bible formed the essential basis of the teaching.

Numerous and meticulous articles deal with the conduct of the students (v. NISIBI, SCHOOL of Edessa). It is exaggerated to attribute the entire literary movement of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries around this city to the school of Edessa alone. It is perhaps the finest manifestation of this movement, but the great merit attributed to it is perhaps due to the fact that the most ancient Syriac manuscripts preserved by us, in the beautiful carangēlā script, refer to the era of the flourishing of this school and to the city of Edessa. Among the original works of Syriac literature, part of the poetry of St. Ephrem and Narsai (those written in Edessa), the works of Ephrem's disciples (Catalona, Isaac of Amida, Isaac of Edessa), and those of the contemporary Edessans may be attributed to the Edessan school

(James of Sarug, Philoxenus, Stephen bar Sudhaile, etc.), numerous writings on theological controversies (Rabbula, Hiba), and numerous hagiographic documents (Sts. Alexius, John and Paul, Sarbil, Gurja, Semona, Habbib, Euphemius, etc.) and of an apocryphal character (the legend of Addai) and in general the whole Syrian literary movement from the 5th to the 6th century.

It seems that the school of E. created a movement in favor of Greek studies, as is attested by the numerous translations of ecclesiastical works from Greek; among them the following: Recognitions, Syriac translation in a London manuscript, written at E. in 411; Discourses of Titus of Bostra against the Manichaeans, ibid.; Theophany of Eusebius, ibid.; Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, in a manuscript of E. from 462 in St. Petersburg. Rabbula, bishop of E., translated the De recta fide of Cyril; Hiba the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus.

In substance the school of E. had the merit of transmitting to the Syrians in their own language the theories of the schools of Alexandria and Antioch, preserving for us numerous works whose Greek original has been lost.

Saverio Pericoli Ridolfini

III. CHRONICLE OF EDESSA

This is a chronicle written by an anonymous author, very probably an Orthodox cleric, around the middle of the 6th century, preserved in a 7th-century codex (Vatican syr. 163). The author describes the history of the city from 133 to 540 and often draws on official documents, such as the notarial account of the flood of 210, in which the "church of the Christians" is mentioned.

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina

EDESSENI ATTI, v. ATTI DEI MARTIRI ORIENTALI.