Ecclesiastical Chronicle, Volume 2

PATRIARCHS OF ANTIOCH: 15TH CENTURY.

...that he might dwell in the East, he called the Mardinian Patriarch, and he came down to him, and he himself consecrated the Christ meaning the chrism, referring to the holy oil, and peace was firmly established in him. And from there the Patriarch went and built a great and beautiful church in the name of the Mother of God, Mary, and of Mar Batala of the Jacobites in the city of Nisibis, at the border of the three corners.

After the death of Ignatius Aziz Bar-Sabta, there were two patriarchs in Tur Abdin: Schaba the Arab and John Bar Cuphar.

After the death of Bar-Sabta, however—may the Lord give rest to his soul—some Tur Abdin people gathered, unlearned, insolent, and unruly, and they made two factions. And they set up the priest John of Inwarda above, and they brought the deacon Schaba.

...that he might dwell in the East, he invited the Mardinian Patriarch; he descended and he himself consecrated the chrism, and by his arrival a great peace was established between them. But from there the Patriarch departed, and he built a large and beautiful church under the invocation of the Mother of God, Mary, and of Mar Batala (?) for the Jacobites in the city of Nisibis at the border of the three corners. From this, the Patriarch became very illustrious in the eyes of all Christians; the Maphrian himself also came to pay him respect, bringing gifts and offerings while he was building the aforementioned church; likewise the Patriarch of Tur Abdin descended to pay him respect with the bishops of Tur Abdin, while he was building the church we mentioned, offering appropriate gifts.

After the death of Ignatius Aziz Bar-Sabta, there were two patriarchs in Tur Abdin: SCHABA the Arab and JOHN Bar Cuphar.

After the death of Barsabta, to whose soul may the Lord grant rest, some Tur Abdin people gathered, unskilled, violent, and unruly, who excited two factions and produced the priest John of Inwarda and the prelate Schaba.

Assemanus, Bibl. Or., II, 386, adds: "He built twenty-two other churches in various places; and the one which the Egyptian Jacobites had in Jerusalem, he bought for the Syrians by paying the price. He bestowed many benefits upon the Scete monastery, where Syrian monks lived. He restored three monasteries of Sura, and especially that of Abae, into which he brought water. But he wonderfully adorned the Zapharan monastery, where the seat of the patriarchs is today, by building new cells, bringing in water, and preparing pleasant gardens. Finally, when he had sat for sixteen years and was in his fiftieth year of age, on the 24th of September, on the evening of the second day of the week in the feast of Saint Domitius in the year 1804 of the Greeks [1493 AD], he died in the same Zapharan monastery."