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St. Jacobus of Sarug, Bishop of Batnæ
Arabic YAKUB AL-SARUJI; English JACOB or JAMES
V/VI Centuries
The great Syriac
Christian
hymnographer Ya`kub al-Saruji was born
around 431 at Kurtam on the Euphrates and educated at
Edessa. He
became a priest and served at Hawra in the
Serugh district of Mesopotamia as "periodeutes",
wandering pastor of several villages. At the age of
67 he was made bishop of Batnan, where he died around
521. Jacob avoided the theological controversies of his
age, and is claimed with equal eagerness by Chalcedonian
and non-Chalcedonian Christians as one of their own.
Called "the Flute of the Holy Spirit and Harp of the
Blessed Faith" by his admirers, he was a master of the
Syriac twelve-syllable verse form and the author of
hundreds of religious poems and hymns; 760 homilies
and the Syriac translation of Evagrius also are
attributed to him. Many of his writings are used as
reading lessons in the Coptic and Syro-Jacobite churches
to this day.
Norman Hugh Redington
Under construction --- far from complete! Read with caution.
- ABOUT:
-
1912 Catholic Encyclopedia: (Read with caution)
-
Mar Jacob of Serugh:
--- Syriac Computing Institute
- Roberta Bondi:
Three Monophysite Christologies, (1976).
Oxford University Press, 1976.
Bondi considers St. Jacob a Monophysite,
but Chalcedonian tradition disagrees.
- M. Papoutsakis:
Formulaic language in the metrical homilies of Jacob of Serugh ,
(1998).
Orientalia Christiana Analecta, Symposium
Syriacum VII, (256): 445
- WORKS:
- Epistles.
- Gunnar Olinder:
The Letters of Jacob of Sarug, (1939).
Lund: Gleerup, 1939.
-
Select Festal Homilies.
Translated by Thos. Kollamparampil,
(Rome: Centre for Indian and Inter-Religious
Studies, 1997).
- On Abraham:
--- Hugoye
- On that Chariot that Ezekiel the Prophet Saw:
- Fr. Alexander Golitzin:
The Image and Glory of God in Jacob
of Serug's Homily "On that Chariot that Ezekiel the Prophet Saw",
(2003).
SVS Quarterly (47/3&4): 323
-
A Canticle on Edessa:
Translated by B. P. Pratten, 1871 (ANCF).
Likens the city of Abgar the Black to
the Shulamitess, "black but comely".
--- SPL
-
Homily on Guria and Shamuna:
--- NA
-
Homily on Habib the Martyr:
--- NA
-
A Metrical Homily on the Mysteries, Types and
Figures of Christ.
Translated by J. A.
Konat, 2005, (Le Muséon (118/1&2):
71).
--- Peeters-Leuven
-
Homily on Samson:
Homily in verse about Samson as a prefiguration of Christ.
--- HTM
-
The Sinful Woman.
Translated by Scott F. Johnson, 2000
(Sobornost (24/1): 56).
-
A Poem on the Soul.
Translated by Sebastian Brock, 2001
(Sobornost (23/1): 40).
-
Verse Homily on Tamar.
Translated by Sebastian Brock, 2002
(Le Muséon (115/3&5): 279).
--- Peeters-Leuven
(2007 May)
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