Yazdegerd I, Persian Emperor

YAZDEGERD I, PERSIAN EMPEROR. - Of the Sasanian dynasty, he became emperor in 399 and died in 420. It was I. - a kind of Constantine in Persia - who put an end, through the intervention of St. Mārūtā (v.), to the period of persecution against Christians begun by Shapur II in the middle of the 4th century. "He ordered that throughout his Empire the churches destroyed by his ancestors be built again with magnificence and the overthrown altars diligently repaired, and that those who had been tried for God's sake by chains and blows should obtain their freedom, and that the presbyters and the rulers with all their community should be without fear and without risk. And this took place at the time and on the occasion of the election of our reverend... Mar Isaac, bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, katholikós and head of the bishops of all the East [399]." Thus the acts of the Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon of 410 (cf. J. B. Chabot, Synodicon orientale, Paris 1902, p. 18). I. therefore granted public freedom to the Church in Persia, which was able to organize itself. I. convoked the Synod of Seleucia of 419 and advised the Persian bishops to remain united with the West. At the same time I. maintained good relations with the Byzantine court, both through the good offices of St. Mārūtā and later, in 419, by means of a legate of his, probably the bishop of Seleucia, Jahballāhā (op. cit., p. 37).

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina