the year are saints' days, naturally many of their own.[1] We noticed that the Jacobite rite is almost the only thing of importance about them. That and the memory of their former scholars still give a certain dignity to this little sect.
Summary
James Baradai, ordained by stealth in Constantinople in the 6th century, built up a Monophysite Church in Syria, called (after him) Jacobite. Under the empire the Jacobites were persecuted; since Islam rules in their country (since the 7th century) they share the usual conditions of a tolerated subject Christian "nation." In the Middle Ages they had scholars of distinction, notably the famous Mafrian Barhebræus; they had an excellent school of liturgical science, and, on the whole, they got on fairly well with other Christian bodies. They have one Patriarch (of Antioch); under him the Mafrian ruled their communities in Persia and East Syria, where they became formidable rivals of the Nestorians. They were never a very large body; since the 14th century they have dwindled, and are now quite a small, poor, backward, scattered sect. They dwell chiefly in Mesopotamia, round about Diyārbakr. The Mafrian is now a kind of auxiliary bishop and vicar-general to the Patriarch. In faith the Jacobites agree with the Copts, though in earlier times their Monophysism was less pronounced. They have always been less opposed to the Orthodox. Their rite is quite different. It is a Syriac form of the ancient Antiochene rite, with the liturgy attributed to St. James the Less, first Bishop of Jerusalem. To this they have added a vast and heterogeneous collection of other anaphoras, not, however, much used now. Their office and calendar also represent the old rite of Antioch. These are the chief points of interest in their Church.
- ↑ For the Calendar see Baumstark: Festbrevier, pp. 159-288, and Nilles: Kalend. Man. 459-483. Parry gives accounts of a modern Jacobite wedding (Six Months, 246-248), and funeral (ib. 343-345).
