Chronicle of Edessa

1

In the year six hundred and thirty-four, Cono the bishop established the foundation of the church of Edessa, and he ordered and completed its building. Saades the bishop ruled after him.

2

In the year six hundred and thirty-five, the cemetery 2 of Edessa was shaken, in the days of Aitallaha the bishop, in the year before the great synod of Nicaea.

3

In the year six hundred and thirty-five, Aitallaha became bishop of Edessa, who built the cemetery and also the southern side of the church.

4

In the year six hundred and thirty-six, the synod of Nicaea of the three hundred and eighteen bishops was gathered.

1 Cono the Bishop. From here begins the series of the Bishops of Edessa, which we shall give at the end of this Chronicle, with the addition of a Catalog of others who are subjoined by Dionysius. It should not be called into doubt that other prelates presided over the Edessene Church before Cono, from the very times of Thaddeus the Apostle of Mesopotamia; among whom, under Emperor Trajan, the famous Saint Barsaumas, or Barfimaeus, flourished, who baptized Sarbelius and his sister Barbaea, as is read in the Roman Martyrology on the 29th of January. For Cono, Metaphrastes has Cognatum Kinsman in the life of Saints Guria, Samonas, and Abibus, and testifies that he was alive in the six hundredth year of Alexander, whose words we have recorded on page 330. Josue Stylites mentions Cono at the year of the Greeks 811 (Christ 500), where it is clear from what was said on page 271 that, besides the foundations of the church being laid, he also built the cemetery itself. Perhaps Cono merely designated the place for the cemetery or only laid its foundations: for it is noted below in our Chronicle that it was later perfected and finished by Aitallaha. He was succeeded by Saades, who, according to the same Chronicle, began to sit from the year of the Greeks 624 until the year 635, that is, from the year of Christ 313 to the year 324, as is gathered from the following number.

2 Aitallaha. In the subscriptions of the Fathers of the Nicene Council he is called Ethilaus, Etholaus, and Aetolus. Others read Aitilaham or Astilabum. But more correctly Aitallaha: for it is a Syriac word composed from the verb Aiti he brought, and from the name Allaha God, or as more recent authors prefer to pronounce it,

[In the] fourth [year] he laid the foundations of the 1 Edessene Church, Cono 1 the Bishop: but Saades the Bishop, his successor, raised and completed the building.

XIII. In the year six hundred and thirty-five, the cemetery 2 of Edessa was established, in the days of Aitallaha 2 the Bishop, in the year before the great Synod was celebrated at Nicaea.

XIV. In the year six hundred and thirty-five, Aitallaha 3 was made Bishop of Edessa: who built the cemetery and the southern side of the church.

XV. In the year 4 following, the Synod of three hundred and eighteen bishops was gathered at Nicaea.

Allobo, God. Dionysius conjectures the beginning of his episcopate to be the year of the Greeks 646, in these words: In the year six hundred and forty-six, Aitallaha went up as bishop to Edessa. But [this is] a manifest error: for that year is the tenth from the celebration of the Nicene Council, at which, however, all Latin, Greek, and Syriac monuments proclaim that Aitallaha was present. Sobensis, in the Collection of Canons, Part I, chapter 3, folio 61 (Cod. Syr. Vat. 46), affirms that Absalamus, not Aitallaha, subscribed to the Nicene Synod, and adds that he was the nephew of Saint Ephrem by his sister. But it is discovered from our Chronicle and from Dionysius that no Edessene Bishop of this name existed. We noted on page 170 that Sobensis fabricated Absalamus as the prelate of Edessa from Absamia, a Syrian writer and Edessene priest. Furthermore, it is gathered that that error is to be attributed not to Dionysius, but to his copyist, from the place where it is recorded as having happened: namely, between the year of the Greeks 641 and 642, which is an argument that the scribe recorded the ordination of Aitallaha in a year not his own.

3 Year 635. Thus I have corrected the error of the scribe, who has: In the year 636, contrary to what he had written a little before: namely, that Aitallaha entered the episcopate in the year of the Greeks 635.

4 But in the following year: namely, the year of the Greeks 636, of Christ 325, as the most common opinion of the Orientals holds, which Socrates confirms in book 1, chapter 13. See Baronius at the aforementioned year of Christ.