Aba I

Aba is a highly regarded and significantly venerated saint in the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. He is documented in the Ausgewählte Akten Persischer Märtyrer, and The Lesser Eastern Churches, two biographies of Eastern saints. The first seminary of the Chaldean Catholic Church outside of Iraq was established in July 2008 in El Cajon, San Diego, as the Seminary of Mar Abba the Great.

Early life

Born in a Zoroastrian family of Persian origin in Hala, Mesopotamia. Mar Aba was secretary to the governor of Beth Garmai province before he converted to Christianity. He was baptised in Ḥīrtā and studied at the School of Nisibis. He then went to Edessa in the Roman Empire, where he learned Greek from Thomas, who became his travelling companion. He traveled widely in the Roman Empire, visiting the Holy Land, Constantinople and Egypt. He was in Constantinople sometime between 525 and 533. Because he favoured the Biblical interpretation and commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I attempted to meet with him to persuade him to denounce Theodore's teachings. Justinian was preparing to anathematize Theodore and his works. In Alexandria, one of his pupils was the merchant and writer known as "Cosmas Indicopleustes". In his Christian Topography, written between 548 and 550, Cosmas credits Aba with teaching him everything he knows. He says that in Greek Aba went by the name Patrikios.

Upon returning to Persia, Aba became a mpaššqānā or teacher of biblical exegesis at the School of Nisibis. One of his pupils there was Cyrus of Edessa. He later taught in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the school of which he is said to have founded. Highly regarded as a scholar, he is credited with the translation (or with having overseen the translation) of key texts, including the works of Theodore and Nestorius, from Greek into Syriac. The translator of Nestorius' Book of Heraclides dedicated his work to Aba. Aba is also remembered as the author of original works including Biblical commentaries, homilies and synodal letters. These survive today only in quotations in other works, notably those of Ishodad of Merv. A remark in the Chronicle of Seert may suggest that Aba made a translation of the Old Testament into Syriac, but there is no other evidence of this.