Ahudemmeh

Mar Ahudemmeh (Hudeni) was monophysite Maphrian of Tikrit who was martyred in 575 AD.

Ya'qub Burde'ana never worked in Persia, but about 559 he consecrated Ahudemmeh as bishop of Tagrit in the highlands of Adiabene, a district which had steadily resisted Barsauma and the Nestorians and became the focus of Persian Monophysitism. Ahudemmeh proved himself a vigorous missioner who did much to spread Monophysite doctrine. He even made converts of some members of the royal family and baptized one of the sons of King Khusraw I, giving him the name of George. But for this he was cast into prison and there executed in 575. (Source probably Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccl. ii. 100-ish?)

Ahudummeh belongs to the sixth century and was born in Balad. As a bishop, he devoted his life to missionary work among the nomad Arab tribes to the south of Tur `Abdin, winning their trust through his healing ministry. He also provided them with a pilgrimage shrine dedicated to St. Sergius on Persian territory, since the famous shrine of St. Sergius at Resafa lay across the border, in the Roman Empire. When the son of the Persian shah Khusrau I (531-579) asked to become a Christian Ahudummeh agreed to baptize him, but sent him at once to Roman territory for safety; Ahudummeh himself was arrested and imprisoned. Although Arab tribes whom he had befriended tried to ransom him (they offered to pay his weight three times in gold), Ahudemmeh declined their generous offer, and eventually died in prison, on Friday 2nd August 575. His memory is commemorated on 18th September.

Ahudemmeh composed treatises on the definition of logic, on free‑will, on the soul, on man considered to be a microcosm, and on man as a composition of soul and body.

Ahoudemmeh, qu'Ebedjesu catalogue à tort parmi les écrivains nestoriens, avait été d'abord évêque de Beit-Arbayé (ou Tour Abdin) Source (1); son élévation au siège métropolitain de Tagrit par Jacques Baradée en 559 ne laisse pas de doute sur sa confession monophysite. Cet évêque convertit un grand nombre de persans et, parmi ceux-ci, un jeune prince de la famille royale, qu'il baptisa en lui donnant le nom de Georges. Ces conversions excitèrent la colère de Chosroès Anoschirwan qui fit mettre en prison Ahoudemmeh ; celui-ci mourut dans sa prison en 575. Sur ces écrits philosophiques et grammaticaux, voir ci-dessus, p. 250 et 286.

Source (1) : Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, III, part. II, p.369.

Bibliography

• AHUDEMMEH. Histoires d'Ahoudemmeh et de Marouta, métropolitains Jacobites de Tagrit et de l'Orient (VIe et VIIe siècles), suivies du Traité d'Ahoudemmeh sur l'homme. ed. F. Nau in Patrologia Orientalis, iii, fascicle i, Paris, 1909.

• Brock, Sebastian and David G.K. Taylor (ed.s), The Hidden Pearl: The Syrian Orthodox Church and Its Aramaic Heritage. (Rome: Trans World Film Italia, 2001).

• Patriarch Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum, The History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. tr. Matti Mousa. (Pueblo, CO: Passeggiata Press, 2000).

Links

• O'Leary, How Greek Science passed to the Arabs