MAFRIANO. – A high dignitary of the Jacobite Church. In Syriac, m. means “he who bears fruit,” and the title was applied to the dignity created at the beginning of the 7th century when the Jacobites, expelled from Persia toward the end of the 5th century, returned there again. The m. had under his jurisdiction all the faithful residing in Persia. His importance sometimes 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 Biblioteca Or. II, Rome 1721, p. 51 ff.; cf. also p. 414 sq. Guglielmo de Vries