own diocese; though, as we have seen, the present Patriarch held that see before his accession. A metropolitan has no suffragans. It is now a mere title for many bishops.[1] The bishop must be celibate. He is named and ordained by the Patriarch, who at the ordination has two or three assistants. Most of their chief sees carry a new name with them; thus the Metropolitan of Mosul is always Basil, he of Mardīn always Athanasius, and so on.[2] There are now five Jacobite monasteries in Ṭur 'Abdīn, Mâr Mattai near Mosul,[3] Dair Za'farān by Diyārbakr, Mâr Muse between Damascus and Palmyra, Mâr Markus at Jerusalem northeast of the great Armenian monastery.[4] This is only a poor remnant of the vast number of monasteries (seventy in Ṭur 'Abdīn alone) which they once had. The bishops live nearly always in monasteries. There are, I believe, no Jacobite nuns now. Secular priests must be married once only before ordination. A priest whose wife dies must go into a monastery, unless they make him an uskuf (see n. 1). There is a curious idea that the priest should come from the village he serves. When a parish priest dies the village council chooses a suitable deacon and sends him to the bishop, who ordains him without any preparatory training. The priest receives small fees from his people and ekes out these by working in the fields like anyone else. The title Chorepiskopos is a mere ornament given to priests of important parishes. The Jacobites have innumerable deacons, ordained in crowds. Most of these remain in the same state as laymen, earning their living; but they serve as deacons in church. Most monasteries are subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary; but those which contain tombs of Patriarchs or Mafrians are Stauropegia. All clergy shave the head entirely and, of course, wear a beard. The minor orders (singer, reader, subdeacon) are now
1 Namely the metropolitan (Muṭrān) is a bishop who is a monk. A secular priest and widower may become an uskuf ((
Greek characters)), and so take a lower place in the hierarchy.
- ↑ 1
- ↑ Silbernagl: op. cit. 308-312.
- ↑ Where Barhebræus is buried. Badger: op. cit. i. 95-98. The adjoining monastery, Mar Behnām, is Uniate.
- ↑ Behind the Ḥārat anNabī Dā'ūd. They also have a chapel in the Anastasis against the outside wall, immediately behind the Holy Sepulchre. Parry gives a list of Jacobite sees (Six Months, 321-323). See also ib. 320 for a bishop's ordination.
