Saint Isaac the Syrian

Isḥaq of Nineveh (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܐܝܣܚܩ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanized: mār isḥāq d-ninwē; Arabic: إسحاق النينوي Ishaq an-Naynuwī; c. 613 – c. 700), also remembered as Saint Isaac the Syrian (Ancient Greek: Ἰσαὰκ ὁ Σύρος), Isaac of Nineveh, Abba Isaac, Isaac Syrus and Isaac of Qatar, was a 7th-century Syriac Christian bishop of the Church of the East, and theologian best remembered for his written works on Christian asceticism. He is regarded as a saint in the Church of the East, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox churches. His feast day falls, together with 4th-century theologian and hymnographer St. Ephrem the Syrian, on January 28. In the Syriac Orthodox Church, his feast day falls on May 14. Isaac was born in the region of Beth Qatraye in Eastern Arabia, a mixed Syriac- and Arabic-speaking region encompassing the south east of Mesopotamia and the north-eastern Arabian Peninsula. When the Catholicos Giwargis I of the Church of the East (661–680), visited Beth Qatraye in 676 to attend a synod, he ordained Isaac bishop of Nineveh far to the north in Assyria. According to Isho'dnah's Book of Chastity, Isaac was Bishop of Nineveh only for a brief period before abdicating for an unknown reason. Isho'dnah continues that Isaac retired first to Mount Matuot in Beth Huzaye, then to the monastery of Rabban Shabur (located near Shushtar in present-day Khuzestan, Iran), where he died and was buried. At the time of his death, Isho'dnah reports that he was nearly blind due to his devotion to study. Abdisho bar Brikha claims that Isaac wrote seven volumes. Isaac's known writings comprise a 'First Part', 'Second Part', and 'Third Part'. Passages of a supposed 'Fifth Part' have also been discovered, but there is no academic consensus about whether they are authentic. The 'First Part' alone was translated into Greek in antiquity, and from Greek into various other languages, such as Slavonic. The 'Second Part' was rediscovered in the 1980s, and the 'Third Part' in the 1990s.