Addai of Edessa

{{short description|Christian saint and one of the seventy disciples of Jesus}}

{{redirect|Addai|other uses|Addai (given name)|and|Addai (surname)}}

{{redirect|Mar Addai|the diocese|Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of Mar Addai of Toronto}}

{{Infobox saint

|name=Thaddeus of Edessa
Saint Addai ܡܪܝ ܐܕܝ

|birth_date=c. 1st century AD

|death_date=c. 2nd century AD

|feast_day=August 5

|venerated_in=Church of the East
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Church
Church of Caucasian Albania

|image= Faddei70.JPG

|imagesize=

|caption= Icon of St. Thaddeus (10th century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai)

|birth_place= Edessa, Osroene, Roman Empire

|death_place=

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|patronage=Assyrians

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According to Eastern Christian tradition, Addai of Edessa (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܐܕܝ, Mar Addai or Mor Aday sometimes Latinized Addeus) or Thaddeus of EdessaCharles George Herbermann, The Catholic Encyclopedia (Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913), p. 136. was one of the seventy disciples of Jesus.

Life

File:Avgar poluchaet Nerukotvorny obraz.jpg receiving the Mandylion from Addai (encaustic icon, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai).]]

Based on various Eastern Christian traditions,[https://books.google.com/books?id=LP4UAAAAQAAJ&dq=Aberoh+and+Atom&pg=PA78 Holweck, Frederick George. A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, B. Herder, 1924, p. 15] Addai was a Jew born in Edessa (now Şanlıurfa, Turkey). He came to Jerusalem for a festival where he heard the preaching of John the Baptist (St. John the Forerunner). After being baptized in the Jordan River, he remained in Judea and became a follower of Jesus. He was chosen as one of the seventy disciples sent in pairs to preach in the cities and places.[https://oca.org/saints/lives/2016/01/04/100025-apostle-thaddeus-of-the-seventy "Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy", Orthodox Church in America]

After Pentecost and the ascension of Jesus, Addai started preaching the gospel in Mesopotamia, Syria and Persia. He ordained priests in Edessa, converted many to Christianity and built up the church there. He also went to Beirut to preach, and many believe that he founded a church there.{{Cite web |last=CNA |title=St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the Zealot, Apostles |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-jude-thaddeus-and-st-simon-the-zealot-apostles-541 |access-date=2022-05-29 |website=Catholic News Agency |language=en}}

The Syriac liturgy referred to as the Liturgy of Addai and Mari originated around the year 200 AD and is used by the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church (both of which are based in Iraq); it is also used by the Eastern Syriac Churches in India which trace their origins to Thomas the Apostle, namely, the Chaldean Syrian Church{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Leslie W.|title=The Indian Christians of St Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar|year=1956|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9gYAAAAIAAJ|page=281}} and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church .

His feast is celebrated on August 5 in the Christian calendar.{{Cite journal |date=January 2019 |title=Saint Who? Saints Addai and Mari |journal=Magnificat |publisher=Magnificat USA |volume=20 |issue=12 |page=76}}

Addai and the healing of King Abgar

Among the Eastern Orthodox faithful, Addai was a disciple of Christ{{cite book |title=Chaldean-Americans: Changing Conceptions of Ethnic Identity |last=Sengstock |first=Mary C. |year=1982 |publisher=Center for Migration Studies |isbn=9780913256428 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERYUAAAAYAAJ }} sent by St. Thomas the Apostle to Edessa in order to heal King Abgar V of Osroene, who had fallen ill. He stayed to evangelize, and so converted{{cite book |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |last=Herbermann |first=Charles George |year=1913 |publisher=Encyclopedia Press |page=282 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01136d.htm }} Abgar—or Agbar, or in one Latin version "Acbar" — and his people including Saint Aggai and Saint Mari.{{Cite book| publisher = Wipf and Stock Publishers| isbn = 978-1-60608-330-7| last = Neale| first = John Mason| title = A History of the Holy Eastern Church: The Patriarchate of Antioch: The Patriarchate of Antioch| date = 2008|page=38}}

The story of how King Abgarus V{{cite book|last1=Bowman|first1=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNSyT_PuYVMC&q=%22arab+principality+of+edessa%22&pg=PA508|title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337|last2=Garnsey|first2=Peter|last3=Cameron|first3=Averil|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521301992|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Skolnik|first1=Fred|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JD0OAQAAMAAJ&q=%22the+Arab+kingdom%22|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|last2=Berenbaum|first2=Michael|date=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|isbn=9780028659435|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Roberts|first1=John Morris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2cfZkU5aQgC&q=Abgar+%22nabataean+arabic+state%22&pg=PA246|title=The History of the World|last2=Westad|first2=Odd Arne|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199936762|language=en}} and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea.Eusebius, Church History, 1.13 and 3.1 In the origin of the legend, Eusebius had been shown documents purporting to contain the official correspondence that passed between Abgar and Jesus, and he was well enough convinced by their authenticity to quote them extensively in his Ecclesiastical History. According to Eusebius:

{{quote|Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, under divine impulse sent Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa, as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of Christ. (Historia Ecclesiastica, I, xiii)}}

The story of the healing and Addai's evangelizing efforts resulted in the growing of Christian communities in southern Armenia, northern Mesopotamia and in Syria east of Antioch. Thaddeus' story is embodied in the Syriac document, Doctrine of Addai,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNAWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|title=The A to Z of Prophets in Islam and Judaism|last1=Noegel|first1=Scott B.|last2=Wheeler|first2=Brannon M.|date=2010-04-01|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9781461718956|pages=89|language=en}} which recounts the role of Addai and makes him one of the 72 Apostles sent out to spread the Christian faith.Luke 10:1 – 20 By the time the legend had returned to Syria, the purported site of the miraculous image, it had been embroidered into a tissue of miraculous happenings.Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, 1934, (in English 1971) ([http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm#FN1 On-line text])

Various traditions

St. Addai also appears in the First Apocalypse of James and the Second Apocalypse of James.Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus : The key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1997 (Viking Penguin). Especially the section "Thaddeus, Judas Thomas and the conversion of the Osrhoeans", pp 189ff.

In Roman Catholic tradition, he and Saint Mari are considered patrons of Persian and Assyrian people.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20081203095233/http://www.thomasinechurch.org/content/patriarchs.htm Thomasine Church Patriarchs]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609044215/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0805.htm#mari Saints Index: Sts. Addai & Mari]
[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01042c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: The Legend of Abgar]
[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01136d.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: The Liturgy of Sts. Addeus and Maris]
[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05088a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Doctrine of St. Addai]