John of the Sedre

John of the Sedre (West Syriac/Monophysite; d. 648 AD) was Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 630/1-648. John composed liturgical prayers known as 'sedre', and may have created the genre himself. From this he took his name 'of the Sedre.'

There are many extant sedr, but he only wrote a few of these.

He also wrote:

• Two 'plerophoriai' or doctrinal polemics. One of these attacks the followers of Julian of Halicarnassus, and contains a lengthy florilegium/anthology of short extracts from earlier patristic writers. The other attacks the dyophysites. A German translation of these exists.

• A Discourse on the Myron. A German translation exists.

• An Anaphora. A German translation exists.

• A letter describing a dialogue with an unnamed Moslem emir. The work gives a date for the dialogue of Sunday May 9th of an unspecified yeat; both 639 and 644 have been suggested. If so, this makes the work the earliest anti-moslem dialogue in existence. But it is possibly the work of a later author. A French translation exists.

Bibliography

• Plerophoria, and On Myron. German translation by J. Martikainen, GOFS 34 (1991)

• Anaphora. German translation by F. Fuchs (1926)

• Dialogue with Emir. French translation by F. Nau, Journal asiatique 11:5 (1915) pp.225-279.