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EDESSA
and Frumentius, who were taken as slaves to the King
of Axum. This occurred about 316. The two boys
soon gained the favour of the king, who raised them to
positions of trust and shortly before his death gave
them their liberty. The widowed queen, however,
prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist
her in the education of the young prince Erazanes and
in the administration of the kingdom during the
prince's minority. They remained and (especially
Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christian-
ity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants,
who were temporarily in the country, to practise their
faith openly by meeting at places of public worship;
later they also converted some of the natives. When
the prince came of age Edesius returned to his friends
and relatives at Tyre and was ordained priest, but did
not return to Abyssinia. Frumentius, on tlie other
hand, who was eager for the conversion of Abyssinia,
accompanied Edesius as far as Ale.xandria, where he
requested St. Athanasius to send a bishop and some
priests to Abyssinia. St. Athanasius considered Fru-
mentiu.s himself the most suitable person for bishop
and consecrated him in 328, according to others be-
tween 340-40. Frumentius returned to Abyssinia,
erected his episcopal see at Axum, baptized King
Aeizanas, who had meanwhile succeeded to the throne,
built many churches, and spread the Christian Faith
throughout Abyssinia. The people called him Abuna
(Our Father) or Abba Salama (Father of Peace), titles
still given to the head of the Abyssinian Church. In
365 Emperor Constantius addressed a letter to King
Aeizanas and his brother Saizanas in which he vainly
requested them to substitute the Arian bishop Theo-
philus for Frumentius (Athanasius, "Apol. ad Con-
stantium" in P. G., XXV, 031). The Latins cele-
brate the feast of Frumentius on 27 October, the
Greeks on 30 November, and the Copts on IS Decem-
ber. Abyssinian tradition credits him with the first
Ethiopian translation of the New Testament.
Rdfinds, Hisloria Ecclrsiastica, lib. I. cap. ix, in P. L., XXI, 478-80; Acta SS., Oct., XII. 257-70; Duchesne, Les missions chrHiennes au Sud de Vempire romain in Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire (Rome, 1896), XVI, 79-122; Thebaud, The Church and the Gentile World (New York, 1878). I, 231-40; Botler, Lives of the Saints. 27 Oct.; B.irixg-Gocld. Lives of the Saints (London, 1872), 27 Oct.
Michael Ott.
Edessa, a titular archiepiscopal see in that part of Mesopotamia formerly known as Osrhoene. The name under which Edessa figures in cuneiform inscriptions is unknown; the native name was Osroe, after some local satrap, this being the .\rnienian form for Chos- roes; it became in Syriac Ourhoi, in Armenian Ourhai, in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name. Seleucus Nicator, when he rebuilt the town, 303 B. c, called it Edessa, in memory of the ancient capital of Macedonia of similar name (now Vodena). Under Antiochus IV (175-164 B. c.) the town was called Antiochia by colonists from Antioch who had settled there. On the foundation of the Kingdom of Osrhoene, Edessa became the capital under the Abgar dynasty. This kingdom was established by Nabata^an or Arabic tribes from North Arabia, and lasted nearly four centuries (132 B. c. to a. d. 244), under thirty- four kings. It was at first more or le.ss under the pro- tectorate of the Parthians, then of the Romans; the latter even occupied Edessa from 115 to 118 under Trajan, 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.
The exact date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa is not known. It is certain, however, that the Christian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legcnil. King Abgar V, Ushama, was converted by .\ddai, who was one of the seventy-two dis- ciples. (For a full account sec Abgak.) In fact, how-
ever, the first King of Edessa to embrace the Christian
Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206). Under him Christianity
became the official religion of the kingdom. As for
Addai, he was neither one of the seventy-two dis-
ciples as the legend asserts, nor was he the Apostle
Thaddteus, as Eusebius says (Hist. Eccl., IV, xiii),
but a missionary from Palestine who evangelized Me-
sopotamia about the middle of the second century,
and became the first bishop of Edessa. (See Doctrine
OF Add.m.) He was succeeded by .^ggai, then by Pa-
lout (Palut) who was ordained about 200 by Serapion
of Antioch. Thenceforth the Church of Edessa, until
thenunderthatof Jerusalem, was subject to the metro-
politan of Syria. The aforesaid relations with Jeru-
salem and Antioch caused an 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 Old
Testament; also Tatian's Diatessaron, which was com-
piled about 172 and in common use until St. Rabbula
(Rabulas), Bishop of Edessa (412-35), forbade its use.
Among the illustrious disciples of the School of Edessa
speciaf mention is due to Bardesanes (154-222), a
schoolfellow of Abgar IX, the originator of Christian
religious poetry, whose teaching was continued by his
son Harmonius and his disciples. (See Bardesanes
AND BaRDESANITES.)
A Christian council was held at Edessa as early as 197 (Euseb., Hist. Eccl., V, xxiu). In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed ("Chronicon Edessenum", ad. an. 201). In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination many mar- tyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbil and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gurja, Schamona, Habib, and others under Diocletian. In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa had evangelized Eastern Mesopo- tamia and Persia, and established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Aitillatia, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the Council of Nica'a (325). The " Peregrinatio Silvia " (or Etheria>) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.
When Nisibis was ceded to the Persians in 363, St. Ephrem left his native town for Edessa, where he founded the celebrated School of the Persians. This school, largely attended by the Christian youth of Persia, and closely watched by St. Rabbula, the friend of St. Cyril of Alexandria, on account of its Nestorian tendencies, reached its highest development under Bishop Ibas, famous through the controversy of the Three Chapters (q.v.), 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 Nestorian Church in Persia (Labourt, Le christianisme dans I'empire perse, Paris, 1904, 130-141). Monophysitism prospered at Edessa, even after the Arab conquest.
Suffice it to mention here among the later celebrities of Edessa Jacob Barada?us, the real chief of the Syrian Monophysites known after him as Jacobites (q. v.); Stephen Bar Sudaili, monk and pantheist, to whom was owing, in Palestine, the last crisis of Origenism in the sixth century; Jacob, Bishop of Edessa, a fertile writer (d. 708); Theophilus the Maronitc, an astron- omer, who translated into Syriac verse Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; the anonymous author of the "Chroni- con 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 St. Alexius. The oldest known dated Syriac manuscripts (a. d. 411 an<l 402), containing Greek patristic texts, come from Edessa.
Rebuilt by Emperor Justin, and called after him Justinopolis( Evagrius, Hist. Eccl., IV, viii), Edessa was
