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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Edessa</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05282a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="A titular archiepiscopal see in that part of Mesopotamia formerly known as Osrhoene"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="05282a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/e.htm">E</a> > Edessa</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Edessa</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>A titular <a href="../cathen/01694b.htm">archiepiscopal see</a> in that part of Mesopotamia formerly known as Osrhoene.</p> <p>The name under which Edessa figures in cuneiform inscriptions is unknown; the native name was Osroe, after some local satrap, this being the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> form for Chosroes; it became in Syriac Ourhoï, in <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name. Seleucus Nicator, when he rebuilt the town, 303 <font size=-2>B.C.</font>, called it Edessa, in memory of the ancient capital of <a href="../cathen/12174a.htm">Macedonia</a> of similar name (now Vodena). Under Antiochus IV (175-164 <font size=-2>B.C.</font>) the town was called Antiochia by colonists from Antioch who had settled there.</p> <p>On the foundation of the Kingdom of Osrhoene, Edessa became the capital under the Abgar dynasty. This kingdom was established by Nabatæan or Arabic tribes form North Arabia, and lasted nearly four centuries (132 <font size=-2>B.C.</font> to <font size=-2>A.D.</font> 244), under thirty-four kings. It was at first more or less under the protectorate of the Parthians, then of the Romans; the latter even occupied Edessa from 115 to 118 under <a href="../cathen/15015a.htm">Trajan</a>, and from 216 to 244, when the kingdom was definitely suppressed to form a Roman province. The literary language of the tribes which had founded this kingdom, was Aramaic, whence came the Syriac.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The exact <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of the introduction of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> into Edessa is not known. It is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a>, however, that the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. (For a full account see <a href="../cathen/01042c.htm">A<font size=-2>BGAR</font></a>.) In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian Faith</a> was Abgar IX (c. 206). Under him <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> became the official religion of the kingdom. As for Addai, he was neither one of the seventy-two disciples as the legend asserts, nor was he the Apostle Thaddeus, as <a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a> says (<a href="../fathers/250104.htm"><em>Church History</em> IV.13</a>), but a missionary from Palestine who evangelized Mesopotamia about the middle of the second century, and became the first <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> of Edessa. (See <a href="../cathen/06088a.htm">D<font size=-2>OCTRINE OF</font> A<font size=-2>DDAI</font></a>.) He was succeeded by Aggai, then by Palout (Palut) who was <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">ordained</a> about 200 by Seraphion of Antioch. Thenceforth the Church of Edessa, until then under that of <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, was subject to the <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> of <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syria</a>. The aforesaid relations with <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a> and Antioch caused in important Syriac literary movement at Edessa of which the city long remained the centre. Thence came to us in the second century the famous Peshitto, or Syriac translation of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>; also <a href="../cathen/14464b.htm">Tatian's</a> Diatessaron, which was compiled about 172 and in common use until St. Rabbula (Rabulas), <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Edessa (412-35), forbade its use. Among the illustrious disciples of the School of Edessa special mention is due to <a href="../cathen/02293a.htm">Bardesanes</a> (154-222), a schoolfellow of Abgar IX, the originator of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> religious poetry, whose teaching was continued by his son Harmonius and his disciples. (See <a href="../cathen/02293a.htm">B<font size=-2>ARDESANES AND</font> B<font SIZE=-1>ARDESANITES</font></a>.)</p> <p>A <a href="../cathen/12164c.htm">Christian council</a> was held at Edessa as early as 197 (<a href="../cathen/05617b.htm">Eusebius</a>, <a href="../fathers/250105.htm"><em>Church History</em> V.23</a>). In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> church was destroyed ("Chronicon Edessenum", <em>ad. an.</em> 201). In 232 the <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a>, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination many <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under <a href="../cathen/04666a.htm">Decius</a>; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under <a href="../cathen/05007b.htm">Diocletian</a>. In the meanwhile <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> from Edessa had evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, and established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Edessa, assisted at the <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Council of Nicæa</a> (325). The "Peregrinatio Silviæ" (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.</p> <p>When Nisibis was ceded to the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a> in 363, St. Ephrem left his native town for Edessa, where he founded the celebrated School of the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a>. This <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, largely attended by the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> youth of <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a>, and closely watched by St. Rabbula, the friend of <a href="../cathen/04592b.htm">St. Cyril of Alexandria</a>, on account of its <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> tendencies, reached its highest development under Bishop Ibas, famous through the controversy of the <a href="../cathen/14707b.htm">Three Chapters</a>, was temporarily closed in 457, and finally in 489, by command of Emperor Zeno and Bishop Cyrus, when the teachers and students of the School of Edessa repaired to Nisibis and became the founders and chief writers of the <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> Church in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> (Labourt, Le christianisme dans l'empire perse, Paris, 1904, 130-141). <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysitism</a> prospered at Edessa, even after the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> conquest.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Suffice it to mention here among the later celebrities of Edessa Jacob Baradeus, the real chief of the Syrian <a href="../cathen/10489b.htm">Monophysites</a> known after him as <a href="../cathen/14417a.htm">Jacobites</a>; Stephen Bar Sudaïli, <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monk</a> and pantheist, to whom was owing, in Palestine, the last crisis of <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origenism</a> in the sixth century; Jacob, <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of Edessa, a fertile writer (d. 708); Theophilus the <a href="../cathen/09683c.htm">Maronite</a>, an <a href="../cathen/02025a.htm">astronomer</a>, who translated into Syriac verse Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; the anonymous author of the "Chronicon Edessenum" (Chronicle of Edessa), compiled in 540; the writer of the story of "The Man of God", in the fifth century, which gave rise to the legend of <a href="../cathen/01307b.htm">St. Alexius</a>. The oldest known dated Syriac <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscripts</a> (<font size=-2>A.D.</font> 411 and 462), containing Greek patristic texts, come from Edessa.</p> <p>Rebuilt by Emperor Justin, and called after him Justinopolis (<a href="../cathen/05639b.htm">Evagrius</a>, Hist. Eccl., IV, viii, Edessa was taken in 609 by the <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persians</a>, soon retaken by Heraclius, but captured again by the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a> in 640. Under Byzantine rule, as <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolis</a> of Osrhoene, it had eleven suffragan <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">sees</a> (Echos d'Orient, 1907, 145). <a href="../cathen/09187a.htm">Lequien</a> (Oriens christ., II, 953 sqq.) mentions thirty-five Bishops of Edessa; yet his list is incomplete. The Greek <a href="../cathen/07322c.htm">hierarchy</a> seems to have disappeared after the eleventh century. Of its Jacobite <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> twenty-nine are mentioned by <a href="../cathen/09187a.htm">Lequien</a> (II, 1429 sqq.), many others in the "Revue de l'Orient chrétien" (VI, 195), some in "Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft" (1899), 261 sqq. Moreover, <a href="../cathen/10755a.htm">Nestorian</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> are said to have resided at Edessa as early as the sixth century. The <a href="../cathen/03096a.htm">Byzantines</a> often tried to retake Edessa, especially under Romanus Lacapenus, who obtained from the inhabitants the "Holy Mandylion", or ancient portrait of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, and solemnly transferred it to Constantinople, 16 August, 944 (Rambaud, Constantin Porphyrogénète, Paris, 1870, 105 sqq.). For an account of this venerable and famous image, which was certainly at Edessa in 544, and of which there is an ancient copy in the Vatican Library, brought to the West by the <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">Venetians</a> in 1207, see Weisliebersdorf, "Christus und Apostelbilder" (Freiburg, 1902), and Dobschütz, "Christusbilder" (Leipzig, 1899). In 1031 Edessa was given up to the Greeks by its <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> governor. It was retaken by the <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arabs</a>, and then successively held by the Greeks, the Seljuk <a href="../cathen/15097a.htm">Turks</a> (1087), the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusaders</a> (1099), who established there the "county" of Edessa and kept the city till 1144, when it was again captured by the Turk Zengui, and most of its inhabitants were slaughtered together with the Latin <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishop</a>. These events are known to us chiefly through the <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> historian Matthew, who had been born at Edessa. Since the twelfth century, the city has successively belonged to the Sultans of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, the Mongols, the Mamelukes, and finally (since 1517) to the Osmanlis.</p> <p>Orfa is today the chief town of a sanjak in the vilayet of <a href="../cathen/01283b.htm">Aleppo</a>, and has a trade in cotton stuffs, leather, and jewellery. Ruins of its walls and of an <a href="../cathen/01663a.htm">Arab</a> castle are yet visible. One of its curiosities is the mosque of Abraham, this patriarch according to a <a href="../cathen/10424a.htm">Mussulman</a> legend having been slain at Orfa. The population is about 55,000, of whom 15,000 are <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> (only 800 <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a>). There are 3 <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a>, <a href="../cathen/14399a.htm">Syrian</a>, <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a>, and Latin; the Latin <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> is conducted by <a href="../cathen/03320b.htm">Capuchins</a>, who have also a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscan</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> conduct a <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> for girls. This mission depends on the Apostolic mission of <a href="../cathen/09650e.htm">Mardin</a>. There are also at Orfa a Jacobite and a Gregorian <a href="../cathen/01736b.htm">Armenian</a> <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">CURETON, <em>Ancient Syriac Documents Relative to the Earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa</em> (London, 1863); BURKITT, <em>Early Eastern Christianity</em> (London, 1904); BAYER, <em>Historia Osrhoena et Edessena ex nummis illustrata</em> (St. Petersburg, 1794); GUTSCHMID, <em>Untermachungen über die Geschichte des Königsreich Osrhoene</em> (St. Petersburg, 1887); TILLEMONT, <em>Les origines de l'Église d'Edesse</em> (Paris, 1888); DUVAL, <em>La littérature syriaque</em> (Paris, 1899), passim; IDEM, <em>Histoire politique, religeuse et littéraire d'Edesse jusqu'à la première croisade</em> (Paris, 1891); LAVIGERIE, <em>Essai historique sur l'école chrétienne d'Edesse</em> (Lyons, 1850); DUCANGE, <em>Les familles d'outre-mer</em> (Paris, 1869), 294-314; TENIER, <em>La ville et les monuments d'Edesse</em> in <em>Revue orientale-américaine</em> (1839), 326-54; CUINET, <em>La Turquie d'Asie</em> (Paris, 1892), II, 257-263.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Vailhé, S.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Edessa.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05282a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Vailhé, Siméon.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Edessa."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 5.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05282a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron.</span> <span id="dedication">With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert, Akron, Ohio.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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