Edessa

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A titulararchiepiscopal 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 theArmenian form for Chosroes; it became in Syriac Ourhoï, inArmenian Ourhaï in Arabic Er Roha, commonly Orfa or Urfa, its present name. Seleucus Nicator, when he rebuilt the town, 303 , called it Edessa, in memory of the ancient capital ofMacedonia of similar name (now Vodena). Under Antiochus IV (175-164 ) 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 Nabatæan or Arabic tribes form North Arabia, and lasted nearly four centuries (132 to 244), under thirty-four kings. It was at first more or less under the protectorate of the Parthians, then of the Romans; the latter even occupied Edessa from 115 to 118 underTrajan, 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 exactdate of the introduction ofChristianity into Edessa is not known. It iscertain, however, that theChristian community was at first made up from the Jewish population of the city. According to an ancient legend, King Abgar V, Ushana, was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples. (For a full account seeA.) In fact, however, the first King of Edessa to embrace theChristian Faith was Abgar IX (c. 206). Under himChristianity became the official religion of the kingdom. As for Addai, he was neither one of the seventy-two disciples as the legend asserts, nor was he the Apostle Thaddeus, asEusebius says (Church History IV.13), but a missionary from Palestine who evangelized Mesopotamia about the middle of the second century, and became the firstbishop of Edessa. (SeeD A.) He was succeeded by Aggai, then by Palout (Palut) who wasordained about 200 by Seraphion of Antioch. Thenceforth the Church of Edessa, until then under that ofJerusalem, was subject to themetropolitan ofSyria. The aforesaid relations withJerusalem and Antioch caused in 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 theOld Testament; alsoTatian's Diatessaron, which was compiled 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 special mention is due toBardesanes (154-222), a schoolfellow of Abgar IX, the originator ofChristian religious poetry, whose teaching was continued by his son Harmonius and his disciples. (SeeB B.)

AChristian council was held at Edessa as early as 197 (Eusebius,Church History V.23). In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and theChristian church was destroyed ("Chronicon Edessenum",ad. an. 201). In 232 therelics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought fromIndia, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination manymartyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, underDecius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others underDiocletian. In the meanwhileChristianpriests from Edessa had evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia andPersia, and established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ,Bishop of Edessa, assisted at theCouncil of Nicæa (325). The "Peregrinatio Silviæ" (or Etheriæ) (ed. Gamurrini, Rome, 1887, 62 sqq.) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.

When Nisibis was ceded to thePersians in 363, St. Ephrem left his native town for Edessa, where he founded the celebrated School of thePersians. Thisschool, largely attended by theChristian youth ofPersia, and closely watched by St. Rabbula, the friend ofSt. Cyril of Alexandria, on account of itsNestorian tendencies, reached its highest development under Bishop Ibas, famous through the controversy of theThree Chapters, 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 theNestorian Church inPersia (Labourt, Le christianisme dans l'empire perse, Paris, 1904, 130-141).Monophysitism prospered at Edessa, even after theArab conquest.

Suffice it to mention here among the later celebrities of Edessa Jacob Baradeus, the real chief of the SyrianMonophysites known after him asJacobites; Stephen Bar Sudaïli,monk and pantheist, to whom was owing, in Palestine, the last crisis ofOrigenism in the sixth century; Jacob,Bishop of Edessa, a fertile writer (d. 708); Theophilus theMaronite, anastronomer, who translated into Syriac verse Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; the anonymous author of the "Chronicon 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 ofSt. Alexius. The oldest known dated Syriacmanuscripts ( 411 and 462), containing Greek patristic texts, come from Edessa.

Rebuilt by Emperor Justin, and called after him Justinopolis (Evagrius, Hist. Eccl., IV, viii, Edessa was taken in 609 by thePersians, soon retaken by Heraclius, but captured again by theArabs in 640. Under Byzantine rule, asmetropolis of Osrhoene, it had eleven suffragansees (Echos d'Orient, 1907, 145).Lequien (Oriens christ., II, 953 sqq.) mentions thirty-five Bishops of Edessa; yet his list is incomplete. The Greekhierarchy seems to have disappeared after the eleventh century. Of its Jacobitebishops twenty-nine are mentioned byLequien (II, 1429 sqq.), many others in the "Revue de l'Orient chrétien" (VI, 195), some in "Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft" (1899), 261 sqq. Moreover,Nestorianbishops are said to have resided at Edessa as early as the sixth century. TheByzantines often tried to retake Edessa, especially under Romanus Lacapenus, who obtained from the inhabitants the "Holy Mandylion", or ancient portrait ofChrist, and solemnly transferred it to Constantinople, 16 August, 944 (Rambaud, Constantin Porphyrogénète, Paris, 1870, 105 sqq.). For an account of this venerable and famous image, which was certainly at Edessa in 544, and of which there is an ancient copy in the Vatican Library, brought to the West by theVenetians in 1207, see Weisliebersdorf, "Christus und Apostelbilder" (Freiburg, 1902), and Dobschütz, "Christusbilder" (Leipzig, 1899). In 1031 Edessa was given up to the Greeks by itsArab governor. It was retaken by theArabs, and then successively held by the Greeks, the SeljukTurks (1087), theCrusaders (1099), who established there the "county" of Edessa and kept the city till 1144, when it was again captured by the Turk Zengui, and most of its inhabitants were slaughtered together with the Latinarchbishop. These events are known to us chiefly through theArmenian historian Matthew, who had been born at Edessa. Since the twelfth century, the city has successively belonged to the Sultans ofAleppo, the Mongols, the Mamelukes, and finally (since 1517) to the Osmanlis.

Orfa is today the chief town of a sanjak in the vilayet ofAleppo, and has a trade in cotton stuffs, leather, and jewellery. Ruins of its walls and of anArab castle are yet visible. One of its curiosities is the mosque of Abraham, this patriarch according to aMussulman legend having been slain at Orfa. The population is about 55,000, of whom 15,000 areChristians (only 800Catholics). There are 3Catholicparishes,Syrian,Armenian, and Latin; the Latinparish is conducted byCapuchins, who have also aschool.Franciscannuns conduct aschool for girls. This mission depends on the Apostolic mission ofMardin. There are also at Orfa a Jacobite and a GregorianArmenianbishop.

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