IEZEDERI I, PERSIAN EMPEROR
Of the Sassanid dynasty, he became emperor in 399 and died in 420. Yezdegerd I— a kind of Constantine in Persia— put an end, through the intervention of St. Mârûtâ (q.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 rebuilt magnificently and the altars overturned be carefully restored, and that those who had been tested by chains and blows for God’s sake should regain their freedom, and that the priests and leaders of each community should be without fear or danger. And this took place at the time and on the occasion of the election of our reverend... Mar Isaac, bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, catholicos 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). Yezdegerd I therefore granted public freedom to the Church in Persia, which was thus able to organize itself. He convened the Synod of Seleucia in 419 and advised the Persian bishops to remain united with the West. At the same time, Yezdegerd I maintained good relations with the Byzantine court, both through the good offices of St. Mârûtâ and, later in 419, by means of a legate, probably the bishop of Seleucia, Jaballâhâ (op. cit., p. 37).