Elisha of Seleucia-Ctesiphon explained

Elisha was Patriarch of the Church of the East during a period of schism from 524 to 537. Unlike his opponent Narsai, who was also consecrated as catholicus but has traditionally been considered an anti-patriarch, Elisha is included in the traditional list of patriarchs of the Church of the East.

Sources

Brief accounts of Elisha's reign are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (floruit 1280) and in the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari (twelfth-century), Amr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century). A long and detailed account of the schism of Narsai and Elisha is given in the Chronicle of Seert.^[1]

Elisha's patriarchate

The following account of Elisha's reign is given by Bar Hebraeus:

Shila died after a while in office. Then a schism arose among the bishops. Some of them supported Elisha, the son-in-law of Shila, and consecrated him catholicus in the church of Ctesiphon; while others supported a man called Narsai, and consecrated him catholicus in the great church of Seleucia. Each of them began to appoint bishops for the vacant churches, and ultimately Elisha prevailed with the support of the king and shut up Narsai in a prison. Narsai died shortly afterwards, and Elisha began to hope that he would be firmly established in the leadership; but the bishops assembled together and degraded him from his rank.^[2]

See also

• List of patriarchs of the Church of the East

References

• Abbeloos, J. B., and Lamy, T. J., Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (3 vols, Paris, 1877)
• Assemani, J. A., De Catholicis seu Patriarchis Chaldaeorum et Nestorianorum (Rome, 1775)
• Brooks, E. W., Eliae Metropolitae Nisibeni Opus Chronologicum (Rome, 1910)
• Gismondi, H., Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria I: Amri et Salibae Textus (Rome, 1896)
• Gismondi, H., Maris, Amri, et Salibae: De Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria II: Maris textus arabicus et versio Latina (Rome, 1899)
• Book: Meyendorff, John. John Meyendorff. 1989. Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450-680 A.D.. The Church in history. 2. Crestwood, NY. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. 9780881410563.
• Scher, Addai (ed. and tr.). Histoire nestorienne inédite: Chronique de Séert. Première partie. Patrologia Orientalis 4.3 (1908), 5.2 (1910).
• Scher, Addai (ed. and tr.). Histoire nestorienne inédite: Chronique de Séert. Seconde partie. Patrologia Orientalis 7.2 (1911), 13.4 (1919).
• Book: Wigram, William Ainger. William Ainger Wigram. An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church or The Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire 100-640 A.D.. 1910. London. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 9780837080789.

Notes and References

1. Chronicle of Seert (ed. Scher), ii. 55–60
2. Bar Hebraeus, Ecclesiastical Chronicle (ed. Abeloos and Lamy), ii. 82