Who is Mar Abba the Great?

In recent centuries, the Seventh Friday after Epiphany has been dedicated to "Hadh Parsopa," that is, the local patron Saint. But an explanatory note at the beginning of the prayers for that Memorial is quite revealing:

"The Memorial of a Certain Person [Hadh Parsopa], which is known to be of Mar Abba the Catholicos. And know, O reader, that it was inscribed in the ancient volumes by Mar Barsawma of Soba, but the Catholicos Ezekiel set it for the honor of Hadh Parsopa, and it is of Mar Abba the Catholicos, his teacher."

What kind of man, then, was Mar Abba, in whose honor this liturgy was composed?

A convert from Zoroastrianism, the man who would later become the Patriarch of the Church of the East was the secretary of the governor of a Persian province when he met a Christian during one of his journeys. He was so impressed by the Christian’s simplicity and humility that he began to talk to him and eventually became a Christian himself. He soon became a monk and made a pilgrimage to visit much of the Western Christian world, including Jerusalem, Egypt, Greece and Constantinople, with his friend Toma, where they were received with great enthusiasm as holy men and fine scholars.

He became Patriarch in 540, a time of great interior and exterior turmoil in the Church, but despite the disasters before him, he faced his Patriarchate with great brilliance and nobility. He visited every Diocese and dealt fairly with any divisions, he revived both monasticism and Christian scholarship, creating educational systems for the simple faithful as well as theological universities, and he returned the Church, through his policies and his personal example, to its original purity and simplicity, all in the course of a 12 year Patriarchate, during most of which he was either in prison or in exile for defying the Zoroastrian authorities! At his Synod in 544, Mar Abba solidified the internal reorganization of the Church of the East and reached out enthusiastically for unity with the Western Church.

After his death in February 552, the faithful carried his casket from his simple home across the Tigris to the monastery of Mar Pithyon, where he was buried.   

Why Name Our Seminary After Him? 

Mar Abba's influence as a Church writer and theologian are great indeed, but his relevance to us today comes from his reaction to the Church in his time. The Church in Persia was in the midst of terrible turmoil: there were practically two bishops in every diocese because there was such division; the priests and deacons were unqualified for their ministries; the people of God barely knew their faith; all this was from within. From without, there was discrimination and pressure from the Zoroastrian government - even to the point where Mar Abba himself was imprisoned for seven of his twelve years as Patriarch for converting from the national religion.

The courage and hope with which Mar Abba faced this trial is more than remarkable. A weaker man would certainly have despaired, and a less holy man would have become a part of the system of corruption all around him. Contrary to this, Mar Abba calmly and wisely visited every Diocese, creating a kind of "traveling Synod" where he met with (most of the time) both bishops of a Diocese and decided the case between them with fairness and enforced his decision without hesitation; he created universities for the education of the monks and clergy; he established, in every diocese, catechism programs to teach the people the faith that they had begun to forget. Finally, during his Synod in 544, he re-established union and understanding with the Church in the West.

Why name our Seminary after Mar Abba the Great? Because our Church is again in the midst of a dire time, and we need the inspiration and intercession of such a great man to face our own trial with bravery, wisdom and calm.