Preface

The first volume of Corepiscopo Dr Mani Rajan’s Martyrs, Saints & Prelates of the Syriac Orthodox Church was published in 2007, containing fifty short biographical notices of fifty. The present volume continues on with fifty further entries. As before, the coverage of saints and martyrs is admirably wide, and many of those covered are revered and honoured by all the Churches; thus several entries record the early traditions concerning the apostles and immediate disciples of Christ, while others deal with the saints and martyrs of the early centuries of the

Christian Church prior to the three-way split in Eastern Christianity that emerged in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries. Saints of this earlier period include representatives of the great Greek Fathers and Writers of the fourth century, such as Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, and of the Syriac Fathers, such as Aphrahat and Ephrem. Following on in time these saints, who are regularly commemorated in the Calendars of many different Churches, come those saints who are specific to the Syriac Orthodox tradition, such as the monk Barsoumo, Patriarch Severios and Maphrian Gregorios Yuhanon Bar ‘Ebroyo. It is particularly welcome to find included some much more recent prelates who have been officially regarded by the Syriac Orthodox Church as being among the saints who may be commemorated during the Holy Qurbono in the Fifth Diptych, such as Patriarch Ignatius Elias III. A distinctive feature of Corepiscopo Mani Rajan’s collection lies in the inclusion of several further notable prelates whose lives fall within the last couple of centuries, reaching up to the end of the twentieth century: it is particularly good to have some basic biographical information about these figures who have all played a prominent role in the modern history of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Many of the saints included in these volumes are regularly commemorated in the liturgical services of the Syriac Orthodox Church: thanks to Corepiscopo Mani Rajan, these need no longer be just names, but they can begin to become actual persons who have set an example to us all by dedicating their lives to the service of God in a great variety of different ways.

Dr Sebastian Brock

Oxford, GB