Paul of Edessa

Paul of Edessa (died 30 October 526) was the Syrian Orthodox bishop of Edessa. He was consecrated 510, succeeding Peter. In the first year of his episcopate Paul joined with Gamalinus, bishop of Perrha, against certain sectarians who refused the use of bread, water, and wine, except in celebrating the Eucharist. Justin, becoming emperor, undertook to force the decrees of Chalcedon on Severus of Antioch and his followers, and committed the task to Patricius. Patricius arrived at Edessa in November 519, then ordered Paul either to subscribe the council or resign. Paul refused, and took sanctuary in his baptistery; whence he was dragged by Patricius and sentenced to be exiled to Seleucia. Justin, however, hoping to overcome the bishop's resistance, reinstated him after 44 days. But Paul still refused to submit, and was at length deposed and banished to Euchaita in Pontus, July 522. A later imperial order placed Asclepius in the see.

Paul translated, no doubt in his days of exile, the Greek hymns of Severus and other Syrian Orthodox writers, and arranged them so as to form a Syriac hymnal. On the death of Asclepius (June 525), Paul "repented" (as the orthodox author of the Chronicon Edessenum states) and submitted to Justinian, then acting for Justin. From him Paul obtained a letter supporting the petition he addressed to Euphrasius, then Patriarch of Antioch, praying to be restored to his see. Paul was accordingly permitted to return to Edessa as bishop in March 526. He survived this his third inauguration less than 8 months, dying on October 30, less than a year before Justin died. The Syrian church, however, cannot have regarded him as a renegade, for he is commemorated in their calendar on August 23, as "Mar Paulus, bishop of Edessa, Interpreter of Books," a title likewise given to Jacob of Edessa.

His hymnal consists of 365 hymns. These include 295 written by Severus; the rest by diverse individuals including Severus' contemporary John Bar-Aphtunaya, abbot of Kinnesrin, and John Psaltes his successor there. Though the translation is no doubt mainly Paul's work, it includes a few hymns of obviously later date. A manuscript of this collection as corrected by his famous successor Jacob (dated AD 675), and probably written by his hand, is in the British Museum (Add. MS. 17134). Joseph Barber Lightfoot gives the hymns of this collection "on Ignatius" at length, with a translation (Ignatius, vol. i. p. 185).

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wace, Henry; Piercy, William C., eds. (1911). "Paulus Edessenus". Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century (third ed.). London: John Murray.