Rabbula of Edessa

Venerable Rabbula of Edessa was bishop of Edessa from 411/412 to 435/436, known for his opposition to the teaching of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius and for his support of Saint Cyril of Alexandria. He is venerated as a saint by the Oriental Churches. The Greek synaxaria of the ninth to twelfth centuries, preserved at Sinai, remember him on 20 December, and the Syriac Church on 7 or 8 August.

He was born about the year 350 at Qenneshrin, a few miles south of Aleppo, into an aristocratic family. His father was a pagan and a priest of the gods, and his mother a devout Christian. Although he grew up under his mother's influence, he remained a pagan until after his marriage. About the year 400, on a journey to his estates, he saw a miraculous healing and was touched by the teaching of Eusebius, bishop of Qenneshrin, and of Acacius, bishop of Aleppo, so that he turned to Christianity. Then he left his mother, wife and children and chose monastic life. With the energy of his fiery nature he sold all his possessions and lived severely, first in a monastery, then as a solitary hermit. His Life tells that, together with another monk, Eusebius (the future bishop of Tella), he sought martyrdom by provoking the pagans of Baalbek, one of the last strongholds of paganism. Instead of being killed they were badly beaten, and Rabbula was spared, according to his Life, because he was destined to become bishop.

After the death of Bishop Diogenes in 411-412, Rabbula was elected bishop of Edessa and accepted the office without the customary reluctance. As bishop he showed unusual energy and lived in personal asceticism. He made large provisions for the poor and the suffering of his diocese, built hospitals and kept strict discipline among clergy and monks. He wrote laws for the members of the Covenant (Bnay Qyāmā). His Life says he struggled zealously against pagans, so-⁠called heretics and Jews, and that he destroyed four temples and a synagogue. He had the Diatessaron of Tatian, the harmony of the Gospels, replaced by the four canonical Gospels, ordering a copy placed in every church, and he promoted a revised translation of the New Testament into Syriac. He also composed numerous hymns.

He fiercely opposed Nestorianism. On a visit to Constantinople he preached a sermon against the teaching of Nestorius before Theodosius II, who was then sympathetic to Nestorius; part of the sermon survives in a Syriac version. He was a friend of Cyril of Alexandria, corresponded with him and translated his treatise De recta fide into Syriac. After the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus he entered into a long conflict with Ibas, head of the school of Edessa, who, though he accepted the condemnation of Nestorius, opposed the condemnation of the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia. In the time of the schism between Ephesus and the Union of 433, Rabbula supported Cyril and came into conflict with most bishops of the diocese of the East and their leader, John of Antioch. Later most of the eastern bishops reconciled with Cyril.

Of his writings little survives: three short treatises for priests and monks, fragments of his forty-⁠six letters (most of them addressed to Cyril), the sermon at Constantinople, collections of rules of church order, sometimes of doubtful authenticity, and hymns. The canon for his service was written by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer. He shepherded for twenty-⁠four years and died in August 435 or 436, and Ibas took the see. Some scholars think that the very positive picture in his Life, written by a disciple soon after his death, may be partly exaggerated.