MAFRIANO. – High dignitary of the Jacobite Church. In Syriac, m. means “one who bears fruit,” and the title was applied to the dignity created at the beginning of the seventh century, when the Jacobites, expelled from Persia toward the end of the fifth century, returned there. The m. had under his jurisdiction all the faithful residing in Persia. His importance at times surpassed that of the patriarch himself. Since 1859, the dignity of the m. has no longer been effective.
BIBL.: J. S. Assemani, Dissertatio de Monophysitis, in Bibliotheca Or., II, Roma 1721, p. 51 ff.; cf. also p. 414 ff. Guglielmo de Vries