PREFACE.

and in a more complete manner by Budge in his edition of the history of Thomas of Marga, Volume II, pp. 132–147. It is with the help of these documents that we are drafting the following essay, adding to it some notices drawn from the treatise of Sahdona.

Sahdona was born at the beginning of the 7th century in Halmon, a village in the diocese of Beit-Nouhadra. His mother, a pious Christian, lived in the intimacy of a lady named Chirin, who had consecrated herself to God and to good works. She had instilled in her son, from his childhood, a love for the religious life, of which he was later to trace the rules and practices with enthusiastic conviction.

"My son, death would be better for me than life," she repeated constantly, "than to see you—God forbid!—captivated by the world like other men."

(see hereafter pp. 11–12), noble words that recall those that Queen Blanche addressed to her son, Saint Louis. Was it not under the influence of this idea that this holy woman gave her child the name "Little Martyr," Sahdona Little Martyr, or in a Greek form, Martyrios Martyr? The name Bar-Sahde Son of Martyrs by which Sahdona was sometimes designated appears to be a re-translation of the Greek Martyrios.

Sahdona completed his studies at the School of Nisibis, which was then flourishing. It is probably at this school that his inclination for Catholicism developed, which he professed in his treatise on perfection, second part, chap. 2, on faith (see hereafter pp. 156–179). A marked current toward Catholicism had formed among the Nestorians at the end of the 6th century under the influence of Hnana of Adiabene, the successor of Joseph Hazzaya at the School of Nisibis. This professor followed in his treatises the biblical commentaries of Saint John Chrysostom and moved away from those of Theodore of Mopsuestia.