DIONYSIUS OF TELL MAHRE. - Monophysite patriarch and annalist, a native of Tellmahre, d. 22 Aug. 845. He was first a monk in the monastery of Kenneshre and, after this had been burned down, in the monastery of St. James of Kaisum. On the death of the Jacobite patriarch Cyriacus, he was elected on 1 Aug. 818 to succeed him. He was a man of great activity and of notable ability in the government of the Jacobite Church.
Internally he had to struggle with the schism of Abraham and, after the latter's death, which occurred around 836, against his successor Simeon. Externally he had to defend the rights of his Church against the Muslims. In 825 he went to Egypt to the emir 'Abdallah ibn Tahir to complain of violence and destruction of sacred buildings and obtained authorization to rebuild them. In the spring of 829 he negotiated with good results with the caliph al-Ma'mun and subsequently had cordial relations with his successor al-Mu'tasim. But toward the end of his life he was afflicted by new violent oppressions of the Muslim leaders against his Christians. D. linked his fame to the important historical compilation that embraces the period between the election of the emperor Maurice (512) and the death of the emperor Theophilus (842). This redaction, more chronicle than history, because it is devoid of any criticism, was of capital importance for knowledge of the vicissitudes of the Syrian Churches; but unfortunately we have only a single chapter of the original (J. Assemani, Bibl. Orient., II, Rome 1721, pp. 72-77). However, Michael, called the Syrian, made extensive use of D.'s work and also reproduced ample passages from it in full: the author of the anonymous chronicle that continues Michael's down to 1234 did the same thing.