Cyrus II of Edessa

Cyrus II (Syriac: Qiyore[1] or Qūrā;[2] died 498) was the archbishop of Edessa and metropolitan of Osrhoene from 471 until his death.[3]

Cyrus succeeded Nonnus as bishop in 471.[2] He was opposed to the Antiochene theology of the school of the Persians in Edessa and he successfully appealed to the Emperor Zeno to have it shut down. Its leading scholars, including Narsai, went into exile in Persia and founded the school of Nisibis.[1] The date of this event is disputed. It took place either before 486 or, as per the Chronicle of Edessa, in 489.[2] A church dedicated to the Theotokos was built on the site of the school, according to Simeon of Beth Arsham.[2][4]

In the year 809 of the Seleucid era (either 496 or 497), during an outbreak of the "disease of tumours", Cyrus urged the people to make silver litter for carrying the Eucharistic vessels during the commemorations of martyrs. Eutychianus, husband of Aurelia, gave 100 denarii for its construction. The "disease of tumours", which is said to have made some blind, has not been securely identified. It may have been an early outbreak of bubonic plague before the first pandemic began in the 540s.[3]

According to the Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, Cyrus died on 5 June 498 (Seleucid 809) and was succeeded by Peter. The chronicle gives him the Syriac title mar (saint, reverend).[5]

References
  1. Adam H. Becker, "Edessa, School of", in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018).
  2. Theresia Hainthaler, "The 'School of Antioch' and Theological Schools in the Area of the Patriarchate of Antioch", in Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler, Tanios Bou Mansour and Luise Abramowski, Christ in Christian Tradition, Volume 2: From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604), Part 3: The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600 (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), pp. 241–242.
  3. F. R. Trombley and J. W. Watt (eds.), The Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite (Liverpool University Press, 2000), p. 26 and n.
  4. Theresia Hainthaler, "The Persian Debater Simeon of Beth Adam and his Anti-Nestorian Position", in Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler, Tanios Bou Mansour and Luise Abramowski, Christ in Christian Tradition, Volume 2: From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604), Part 3: The Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch from 451 to 600 (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), p. 261.
  5. Trombly and Watt (2000), p. 31.
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