Theodosius, Metropolitan of Edessa

Theodosius, Metropolitan of Edessa

The learned Theodosius was the brother of the Patriarch Dionysius of Tell Mahre and probably older than him. He was born at Tell Mahre. He studied at the Monastery of Qenneshrin the origins of Syriac and Greek literature, as well as philosophy and theology. He also acquired sufficient proficiency in the Arabic language. Then he became a monk and was elevated to the office of priesthood before 802. He began to be well-known for his virtues and was consecrated a bishop of Edessa around 813. In 825, he journeyed with his brother to Egypt to complain to the Amir 'Abd Allah Ibn Tahir against his brother Muhammad who had unjustly destroyed the churches in his diocese. The Amir was hospitable to them and was just in their case. Theodosius died in 832. He was lauded by his friend, the monk Anton of Tikrit who called him "The Lover of Sciences and Languages."

Theodosius wrote a short ecclesiastical history, beginning from 754 to 812, which was cited and used by his brother. According to Bar Hebraeus he also translated the poems of Gregory Nazianzen, from Greek into Syriac. Of these, we found in the Vatican a metrical homily, in two pages, on the miracles performed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. He began the  translation of this homily in June, 802 and finished it in December of the same year, while still a priest at the Church of Edessa. He also rendered into Syriac in six long pages twenty-five questions submitted to Theodosius, Patriarch of Alexandria, in 820 and another twelve questions, in four pages, submitted by the monk to the same Patriarch. We have read these questions in the collection of canons at Basibrina. In his Book on Theology, Bar Salibi quoted his exposition of the term (Ariphus) in the north-west of Constantinople, by which he meant the tide and ebb which occurs seven times a day. 

Sources: 

• Patriarch Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum (2003), The Scattered Pearls, A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, Translated and Edited by Matti Moosa, New Jersey