GIACOBITES. - Name given to the Syriac Monophysites, derived from James Baradaeus, who around the middle of the 6th century organized the Monophysite Church especially in Syria.
I. HISTORY
Monophysitism in Syria had already taken hold after the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Monophysites succeeded in occupying the see of Antioch for the first time in 468 (Peter the Fuller). Their most authoritative representative and father of later Monophysitism, which was, moreover, purely verbal, was Severus, Patriarch of Antioch (512-18) under the emperor Anastasius, who was also favorable to Monophysitism. With the accession of the emperor Justin (518), the situation changed and Severus had to flee. When under Justinian (527-65) conditions became ever more critical for the Monophysites, whose bishops were imprisoned, the monk James Baradaeus succeeded, with the help of the Empress Theodora, in having himself consecrated bishop and in consecrating Monophysite priests and bishops in his turn. In this way he created an entire Monophysite hierarchy alongside and in opposition to the orthodox hierarchy. From his time, therefore, there has existed a Monophysite Church of Antioch distinct from and opposed to the orthodox one. It is therefore reasonable that the Syriac Monophysites are called Jacobites.
The Monophysites took hold in Syria mainly in the countryside, where Syriac was spoken. In the Hellenized cities, on the contrary, orthodoxy prevailed. In northern Mesopotamia, for example, in Edessa, Amida, Mabbûg, etc., Monophysitism imposed itself. In the religious struggle over Monophysitism, a good dose of Syrian nationalism also became involved in opposition to the hated Greeks of Byzantium, considered oppressors of the Syrian people.
From Persia the Monophysites were expelled after Nestorianism was introduced there toward the end of the 5th century. They were, however, able to return when at the beginning of the 7th century the Persians temporarily conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The period up to the arrival of the Persians was filled with internal disputes among Monophysites of various tendencies, struggles that sometimes even became bloody.
Under the Persian regime, which conquered Antioch in 611, the Jacobites felt themselves freed from the continual vexations of the Byzantines. In order to win the Monophysites over to the cause of the Empire, Heraclius (610-41), after having driven the Persians out of Syria (629), propagated Monothelitism as a formula of reconciliation. The emperor recognized the Monophysite patriarch Anastasius as the sole patriarch of Antioch.
The Arab invasion definitively detached Syria from the Empire, apart from the temporary return of the Byzantines in the second half of the 10th century. The Jacobites, as opponents of the Byzantines, at first enjoyed the favor of the conquerors. But toward the end of the 7th century their situation also began to worsen.
Very agitated among the Jacobites in the Arab period was the question of the “mafriano.” Mafrêjân (= “he who makes fruitful”) was the title of the supreme head of the eastern part of the Jacobite Church, already subject to the Persians. With the Arab invasion, the boundary between Persia and Syria having ceased to exist, the mafriano seemed to have no further reason for being. Patriarch Dionysius of Tellmahrê (518-45) succeeded in subjecting even the eastern part placed under the mafriano.
The Byzantine conquest of the second half of the 10th century put the Jacobites again in contact with the Byzantines, who disturbed the peace by seeking— not without recourse to force—to convert them to orthodoxy. Recalcitrant bishops and monks and even once the patriarch himself were deported to Constantinople. The Jacobites rejoiced at the victory of the Seljuk Turks over the Byzantines and preferred Turkish domination, which did not disturb their faith, to that of the Byzantines.
Relations between the Jacobites and the Latin Crusaders were generally good. Especially Patriarch Michael the Great (1166-99) was friendly toward the Latins. Patriarch Ignatius II even made a profession of the Catholic faith (in 1237 in Jerusalem).
From the 13th to the 15th century various schisms divided the Jacobites. There was even a political one, because at that time the Jacobites were politically separated, among other things because they belonged in part to the domain of the Mamluks and in part to the Kingdom of the Armenians of Cilicia. In 1293 the western bishops, assembled at Sis, elected their own patriarch, Ignatius Michael, against the patriarch Ignatius residing at Mardin. This schism lasted until 1445. In Tur 'Abdin there existed from 1364 to 1494 a counter-patriarchate.
The Council of Florence made an attempt at union with the Jacobites. In 1444 the delegate of Patriarch Ignatius IX recognized Pope Eugenius IV in the name of the Jacobites living between the Tigris and the Euphrates. But this union did not become effective. Another attempt was made under Gregory XIII, who in 1581 recognized Patriarch Ignatius David Sah as Patriarch of Antioch. But since the patriarch refused to recognize the Council of Chalcedon and to condemn Dioscorus, the union did not succeed. Later, in the 17th century, through the patient work of Latin missionaries, a community of Catholic Syrians converted from Monophysitism slowly formed, who for the first time had a patriarch in 1662 in the person of Andrew Akidjan.
Centuries of oppression by the Muslims reduced the once-flourishing Jacobite Church to very little. Even during the First World War many Jacobites in Asia Minor were massacred by the Turks. After the war, the patriarch transferred his see from the Dér Safrán monastery near Mardin in Turkey to Homs in Syria. Many faithful also sought refuge in Syria or in Lebanon under the French mandate. Thus very few remained in Turkey.
The Jacobites (they themselves do not like this name; they prefer to call themselves “Orthodox Syrians” or “Old Syrians”) are very attached to their Syrian nationality, even though today they appear to speak Arabic. In Syria there are counted (according to the French government census of 1935) 24,000, and in Lebanon 3,000. For the most part they are refugees who immigrated after the war of 1914-18 from Turkey, from Edessa, from Mardin, or even from Iraq. The Jacobites are particularly numerous in the northeastern corner of Syria (Upper Gezirah), where 10,000 are found. At Homs, in the surrounding area, and at Damascus there are many long-time residents. Besides the patriarch who resides at Homs, there are in Syria bishops at Aleppo and in Upper Gezirah. Another has his see at Beirut in Lebanon. In Palestine the Jacobites are few in number. Monophysitism was never able to take root in the patriarchate of Jerusalem. In the Holy City the Jacobites possess the famous monastery of St. Mark, with a rich library of manuscripts and a printing press.
The Jacobites are more numerous in Iraq, where their number reaches 12,000. They are especially strong at Mosul, where they have long resided and live in comfortable conditions. There they have beautiful ancient churches. At Mosul the bishop also resides. Nearby is the famous monastery of Mār Mattai with the tomb of Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286). On the Jacobites of India V. MALABAR.
II. LITERATURE
The Jacobites possess a rich theological literature. The history of the Syriac literature of the Monophysites can be divided into three periods: the first up to the Arab invasion, the second up to the end of the first millennium, and the third, which ends with the 13th century. After that no noteworthy author is found. The period of complete decadence begins.The principal Monophysite Father of the Church is Severus, Patriarch of Antiochia (512–18), who wrote in Greek. Many of his writings survive only in Syriac translation, including his letters and homilies. The first important Syriac writer of the Monophysites is Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabbūg (Hieropolis), who died in 523, a zealous defender of Monophysitism. James of Serūg (d. 541) is the most celebrated poet among the Syriac Monophysites, called “the flute of the Holy Spirit”; he was of a peaceful disposition and took little part in theological controversies, but composed numerous metrical homilies. John, Bishop of Ephesus (d. after 585), is the author of a celebrated Church history.
In the second period of Jacobite literature, theological controversies no longer occupy so prominent a place, since the Jacobites were now separated from Byzantium. Yet Greek influence remained strong. Soon Arabic began to penetrate among the Jacobites, so that by the end of this period Syriac literature was disappearing.
With Severus Sebokt (666) a period of prosperity begins for Hellenized Syriac literature. Among his pupils were Athanasius of Balad, elected Patriarch in 684 (d. 687), James Bishop of Edessa (d. 708), the most notable representative of Christian Hellenism in Syriac literature and comparable to St Jerome, and George Bishop of the Arabs.
The rise of Arab domination eventually led to the decline of Syriac literature. The extensive and many-sided activity of Moses bar Kepha (815–903) marks the close of this period.
In the second millennium the Syriac literature of the Jacobites enjoyed a new period of prosperity. Renewed contact with the cultured Byzantine world gave fresh impetus to Jacobite literature as well. The most distinguished representatives of this literary renaissance belonged to the higher Jacobite clergy. Patriarch Michael the Great (1166–99) is known for his history of the Jacobite Church. The activity of the Bishop of Amida, Dionysius bar Salibi (d. 1171), marks the apogee of the Syriac literary renaissance. Arab cultural influence is evident in the monk James bar Shakko (d. 1241), who wrote a Summa of philosophy and theology, and in the last and perhaps most authoritative and universal theologian of the Jacobites, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1226–86), comparable in several respects to his contemporary Albertus Magnus. After him the definitive decline of Jacobite literature begins.