Marutha of Maiferqat

• Bishop of Maiferqat; his father was the governor of the region of Sophita near Diar Bakr (Amid). After the death of his father he became governor in his place.
• He was a man of considerable culture, well versed in both Greek and Syriac. He studied Greek sciences, Aramaic, and medicine and afterwards was ordained bishop.
• He became bishop of Maiferqat during the reign of Theodosius I (375-395).
• The Emperor Arcadius (395-408) and Theodosius II (408-

450. sent him as an ambassador on several occasions (399, 403, 408) to the Persian King, Yazdagird I (399- 421).

• As one who was persona grata to Yazdagird I, he seems to have prevailed over the king (a) to end the persecution of the Church, (b) to recognize Isaac as the duly elected head of the Church in Persia, (c) to order the reconstruction of churches destroyed in the recent persecution, and to free Christians still in prison, and (d) to allow Christian clergy to move about freely within the kingdom.
• Through his efforts the Christians in Persia enjoyed peaceful and secure times.
• From these missions he transported many of the relics of the martyrs of Sapor II’s persecution to Maiferqat, and so the city was known as ‘Martyropolis,’ the city of martyrs.
• One of these occasions he is said to have cured the Persian king of a troublesome malady.
• He played an active role in the reorganization of the Persian Church by presiding over a synod together with

Isaac I held at Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 410.

• He also contributed, it seems, to the election of Catholicos Ahi (Ahay) at the end of 410 after Isaac’s death.
• His body was originally buried in Maiferqat, but later transferred to the Monastery of the Virgin Mary (Syrian Monastery) in Egypt. 12

• Marutha translated the canons of the council of Nicaea from Greek to Syriac. He was also delegated by Emperor Arcadius to circulate the canons in the Persian lands.
• He wrote a history of the Council of Nicaea.
• He wrote biographies of the most famous eastern martyrs who were killed by Sapor II (339-379).
• Other than the 21 canons included in Marutha’s record of the Council of Nicaea, he also wrote a set of monastic canons known as the Canons of Marutha. Marutha was himself a monk and was interested in the spread of a disciplined asceticism. These provide evidence of the existence of monasticism in the Persian Church in the early 5th century. An example of these canons is shown below: 54. On the internal discipline of a monastery: All shall participate in…prayer, in reading and in fasting; item 2 suggests that the work of the monastery is allotted to each on a weekly basis; …complaints regarding food served at the table; altercations between monks or physical violence against the abbot; items 7-17 indicate how to cope with slander, laziness, quarrelsomeness, insubordination; rebelliousness, fornication, stealing, absence from the monastery, trouble- making, somnolence during the service; working monks eat twice a day (sixth hour and evening), non-working monks eat once a day; monks sleep on the floor or on the ground; the abbot and the

sick may sleep in beds; there is to be no disrobing or loosening of the girdle when retiring; there shall be seven services a day (morning, third, sixth and ninth hours, evening meal, evening, night)…there shall be two kind of garments, one for the winter and one for the summer. 13