Assyrian Church of the East

The Assyrian Church of the East is a Christian denominational body that traces its origins to the See of Babylon, said to be founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. It sometimes calls itself the Assyrian Orthodox Church, but should not be confused with the distinct Syriac Orthodox Church, which is an Oriental Orthodox body. In India, it is known as the Chaldean Syrian Church of the East. In the West it is often known, inaccurately, as the Nestorian Church.

Early history

The Schism

Although the Assyrian Church split from the western churches in the course of the Nestorian schism, the theology of the Assyrian church can not be defined as Nestorianism. Nestorius, a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia and bishop of Constantinople, was condemned because he refused to call the Virgin Mary 'mother of God'. He would only call her 'mother of Christ'. His opponent Cyril of Alexandria accused him of dividing Christ into two persons, which he clearly denied. The affair was complicated by the unclear arguments of Cyril, which soon after provoked the Monophysite schism.

Related Topics:
Western churches - Nestorian schism - Nestorianism - Pupil - Bishop - Constantinople - Virgin Mary - Mother of God - Cyril of Alexandria - Person - Monophysite

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Cyril of Alexandria worked hard to remove Nestorius and his supporters and followers from power. But in the Syriac-speaking world Theodore of Mopsuestia was held in very high esteem, and the condemnation of his pupil Nestorius was not received well. His followers were given refuge. The Persian kings, who were at constant war with Byzantium, saw the opportunity to assure the loyalty of their Christian subjects and supported the Nestorian schism:

Related Topics:
Alexandria - Persian kings - Byzantium

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• They granted protection to Nestorians (462).
• They executed the pro-Byzantine Catholicos Babowai who was then replaced by the Nestorian Bishop of Nisibis Bar Sauma (484).
• They allowed the transfer of the school of Edessa to the Persian city Nisibis when the Byzantine emperor closed it for its Nestorian tendencies (489).

The consolidation of the Church

The Christian communities of Mesopotamia had renounced all subjection to Antioch and the "Western" bishops already at the Council of Seleucia in 410, and the Bishop of Ctesiphon assumed the rank of Catholicos. At the time of the arrival of the Nestorian refugees from Edessa, the prelate was Babaeus or Babowai (sometimes also called 'Babai', not to be confused with 'Babai the Great') (457-484), who appears to have received them with open arms. But Bar Sauma, having become Bishop of Nisibis, the nearest important city to Edessa, broke with the weak Catholicos, whom he had deposed at a the Synod of Beth Lapat in April, 484. In the same year Babowai was accused before the king of conspiring with Constantinople and cruelly put to death.

Related Topics:
Mesopotamia - Council of Seleucia - 410 - Ctesiphon - Catholicos - Babaeus - Babowai - 457 - 484 - Bar Sauma - Synod of Beth Lapat

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At the synod of Beth Lapat it was also decided that monks and all church dignitaries should marry.

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This led to apostasy and a weakening of spiritual life, and already by 544 some of the reforms had been reverted. The counter reforms reached their zenith in 571 when Abraham the Great of Kashkar founded a new monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis to revive the strict monastic movement, and Henana of Adiabene became head of the school of Nisibis. Henana then broke with the Antiochene tradition of Theodore and openly followed the teaching of Origen. Attempts by the Bishops to censor and condemn Henana failed because of his protection by the royal court and he remained head of the school, even though almost all the students left.

Related Topics:
Apostasy - 544 - Reform - 571 - Abraham the Great of Kashkar - Monastery - Mt. Izla - Henana of Adiabene - Origen

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The wars of 610--628 between the Persian and Byzantine empires weakened the political standing of the Assyrian church and several sees and villages were lost to the Monophysites. The Assyrian church was not allowed to choose a new Catholicos, and its theological tradition was undermined by Henana. Babai the Great together with Archdeacon Mar Aba administered the church without the authority vested in the position of the Catholicos. But in his official position as 'visitor of the monasteries of the north' Babai had the authority to investigate the orthodoxy of the monks and monasteries of northern Mesopotamia and to enforce discipline. In particular, he drove out married monks.

Related Topics:
610 - 628 - Babai the Great - Archdeacon Mar Aba - Orthodoxy

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Babai the Great and his co-religionists worked hard to defend the legacy of Theodore: rival schools were set up in Nisibis and Balad, and the monastery of Mar Abraham, headed by Babai, took in a number of students from the school of Nisibis. Babai himself wrote a great number of commentaries and hagiographies to defeat the Monophysites and the Origenist Henana, and developed the only systematic Assyrian Christology. He taught that the two qnome (essence) are unmingled but everlastingly united in the one parsopa (personality) of Christ.

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The defenders were successful: at the episcopal gathering of 612 the teachings of Theodore were canonized. Soon Babai's writings and Christology became normative, and the writings of Henana were doomed to oblivion. Assyrian monasticism was purged and gathered momentum. The church proved to be well organized during the Arab conquest that followed the Byzantine-Persian wars, and flourished for many centuries after.

Related Topics:
Episcopal - 612 - Canonized - Arab

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Southern Expansion

Assyrian Christians reached India at an early date. There they are popularly known as Saint Thomas Christians. Bishops from the Church of the East were sent from Mesopotamia to India until the Sixteenth Century, but ecclesio-political considerations related to Portugese missions meant that for the next few centuries bishops for India were ordained only with authorization from Rome or from the Eastern rite Chaldean Church. During the Nineteenth Century, Christians in Trichur again sought the ordination of a native bishop under authority of the Church of the East. This resulted in the organization of the Chaldean Syrian Church. The present Metropolitan of India is Mar Aprem.

Related Topics:
India - Saint Thomas Christians - Sixteenth Century - Portugese - Chaldean - Nineteenth Century - Trichur - Chaldean Syrian Church

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Eastern Expansion

The Assyrian Church was the first Christian tradition to reach China (in 635), and about the same time penetrated into Mongolia, and its relics can still be seen in Chinese cities such as Xi'an. An inscribed stone, set up in February, 781 at Chou-Chih (Pinyin, "Zhouzhi"), fifty miles south-west of Sai-an Fu, at the time the capital of China, describes the introduction of Christianity into China from Persia in the reign of Tang Taizong; see the entry for Nestorian Stele. However when Tang Wu Zong decided to suppress all foreign religions; Christianity largely ceased to exist in China. The church appears to have survived for a time, however, among the Uigur, and even had a revival under the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty. A native of China was elected Patriarch as Yaballaha III in 1281. A Fourteenth Century monument in the remains of the Monastery of the Cross in the Fangshan District near Beijing can still be seen. In 2003, it was discovered that a single church body of the Assyrian Church still existed in China, cut off from any contact with its Patriarch for centuries.

Related Topics:
635 - Mongolia - Xi'an - Inscribed stone - 781 - Chou-Chih - Pinyin - Zhouzhi - Sai-an Fu - Tang Taizong - Nestorian Stele - Tang Wu Zong - Religion - Uigur - Mongols - Yuan Dynasty - Yaballaha III - 1281 - Fourteenth Century - Fangshan District - 2003 - Patriarch

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P. Y. Saeki, Nestorian Documents and Relics in China, 2nd ed., (Tokyo: Maruzen, 1951).

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