Narsai

Template:Template otherTemplate:Short description Narsai (sometimes spelt Narsay, Narseh or Narses; Template:Langx, name derived from Pahlavi Narsēh from Avestan Nairyō.saȵhō, meaning 'potent utterance'; c. Template:Trim – c. 502) was one of the foremost of the poet-theologians of the early Church of the East, perhaps equal in stature to Jacob of Serugh, both second only to Ephrem the Syrian. He is venerated as a saint in all the modern descendants of the Church of the East; the Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Saint Narsai is known as the 'Flute of the Holy Spirit.'

Although many of his works seem to have been lost, around eighty of his mēmrē (), or verse homilies are extant.

Life

Narsai was born at ‘Ain Dulba ( "Plane Tree Spring") in the district of Ma‘alləta () in the Sasanian Empire (now in Duhok Governorate, Iraq).Template:Rp Being orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his uncle, who was head of the monastery of Kfar Mari () near Beth Zabdai (). Narsai spent ten years as a student at the School of Edessa and later returned there to teach (c. 437), eventually becoming head of the school. Perhaps in 471, Narsai left Edessa after disagreeing with the city's bishop Cyrus (471–498). With the help of his friend Barsauma, who was bishop of Nisibis (although Narsai and Barsauma's wife do not seem to have seen eye-to-eye), Narsai re-established the School of Nisibis.Template:Rp When his former school was ordered closed by Byzantine emperor Zeno in 489, it seems that many of his faithful staff and students came to join Narsai in Nisibis. Evidence from the first Statutes of the School of Nisibis, drafted in 496, shows that Narsai was still alive, and he must have been a venerable old teacher in his nineties. Narsai died sometime early in the sixth century and was buried in Nisibis in a church that was later named after him. Joseph Huzaya was one of his pupils.

Narsai's extant works belong to the distinctive Syriac literary genre of the mēmrā, or homily in verse. He employs two different metres — one with couplets of seven syllables per line, the other with twelve. The mêmrê were designed to be recited in church or religious school, each an exposition of a particular theme. The later Syriac writer Abdisho bar Berika of Nisibis suggests that Narsai wrote 360 mēmrē in twelve volumes along with prose commentaries on large sections of the Old Testament and a book entitled On the Corruption of Morals.Template:Rp However, only eighty mēmrē remain, and none of his prose works.

Homilies

Hundreds of works have been attributed to Narsai, but only just over 80 of his homilies (mēmrē) have survived. Some surviving sogitha are also attributed to Narsai, but they are considered spurious.Template:Sfn The homilies are all poetry, and most use 12-syllable metre, with a minority using 7-syllable meter. Most, if not all, of Narsai's homilies involve biblical exegesis across liturgical, moral, and theological subjects.Template:Sfn

In 1905, Alphonse Mingana published a two-volume work with the Syriac text of 47 of these homilies. In 1970, a photographic reproduction of a manuscript with 72 of Narsai's homilies was published by Patriarchal Press. Two numbering systems are used for Narsai's homilies: one by Mingana, and a second by Macomber,Template:Sfn in his 1970 inventory of Narsai's manuscripts.Template:Sfn

List of Narsai's homilies

NameTemplate:Sfn	Number (Macomber)Template:Sfn	Number (Mingana)Template:Sfn	Translations	Additional notes
On Revelations to Patriarchs and Prophets (I)	1	1	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Revelations to Patriarchs and Prophets (II)	2	2
On Revelations to Abraham	3	3	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Nativity	4	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Mary (On the Incarnation)	5	-	EnglishTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Epiphany	6	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On John the Baptist	7	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Peter and Paul	8	4	EnglishTemplate:Sfn GermanTemplate:Sfn
On the Four Evangelists	9	-
On Stephen	10	5	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Three Doctors	11	-	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Iniquity of the World	12	6	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Supplication (On Prayer)	13	7	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Jonah	14	8	EnglishTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Reproof	15	9
On Human Nature	16	16	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
For Any Saints Day	17	-
On the Departed and the Resurrection	18	-	FrenchTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Works	19	-
On Lent I	20	10
On the Temptation of Christ (1)	21	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Temptation of Christ (2)	22	-
On Lent III	23	11
On Lent IV	24	12
On Reproof	25	13
On Lent V	26	14
On the Parable of the Ten Virgins	27	15	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Raising of Lazarus	28	-
On Palm Sunday (1)	29	-
On Palm Sunday (2)	30	-
Against the Jews	31	18	ItalianTemplate:Sfn
On the Canaanite Women	32	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Prodigal Son	33	-	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On Holy Week	34	19
On the Mysteries	35	17	EnglishTemplate:Sfn FrenchTemplate:Sfn	Probable forgeryTemplate:Sfn
On the Passion	36	-	McLeodTemplate:Sfn
On the Repentant Thief	37	20	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Mysteries and Baptism	38	21	EnglishTemplate:Sfn FrenchTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Baptism	39	22	EnglishTemplate:Sfn FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Resurrection	40	-	McLeodTemplate:Sfn
On the Confessors	41	24
On the Martyrs (1)	42	25
On the Martyrs (2)	43	-		Probable forgery
On New Sunday (On the New Creation)	44	26	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Ascension	45	-	McLeodTemplate:Sfn
On Pentecost	46	27
On the Workers in the Vineyard	47	28	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Rich Man and Lazarus	48	28	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On Creation IV (On the Forming of Adam and Eve)	49	29	EnglishTemplate:Sfn FrenchTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Humility	50	-
On the Antichrist	51	23
On the Second Coming	52	23	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Wheat and the Tares	53	-	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On the Finding of the Cross	54	30
On the Bronze Serpent	55	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Dedication of the Church	56	-
On the Tabernacle	57	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Isaiah's Vision	58	31	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Church and the Priesthood	59	32	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Dedication of the Church	60	33	EnglishTemplate:Sfn GermanTemplate:Sfn
On Creation II	61	34	FrenchTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Creation III	62	35	EnglishTemplate:Sfn FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On Creation I	63	36	FrenchTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
On Creation V	64	37	FrenchTemplate:Sfn
On Creation VI	65	38	FrenchTemplate:Sfn GermanTemplate:Sfn
On the Soul	66	39	GermanTemplate:Sfn
On the Blessing of Noah	67	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Tower of Babel	68	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On Job	69	40
On Joseph	70	41
On the Flood	71	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Miracles of Moses	72	42
On Samson	73	43
On David and Saul	74	-
On Solomon	75	-
On Enoch and Elijah	76	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Three Children	77	44
On Reproof of the Clergy	78	45
On Reproof	79	46
On Reproof of Women	80	47	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On John 1:14 (On Christology)	81	-	EnglishTemplate:Sfn
On the Feast of the Victorious Cross	82
(Title Unknown)	83
(Title Unknown)	84

Syriac editions

• Major collection of Narsai's works, containing the full text of 47 memre and the incipits of 34 more —

Published translations

English

• • Four mēmrē on baptism and eucharist
• Template:Cite thesis
• • Five mēmrē on dominical feasts — Christmas, Epiphany, Passion of Jesus, Easter, and Ascension of Jesus — these show Narsai's christological opposition to Cyril of Alexandria in a few places

French

• • Six mēmrē on Old Testament topics —on Enoch and Elijah, the Genesis flood narrative, Blessings of Noah, the Tower of Babel, the Tabernacle, and the Nehushtan
• • Memra on the Three Doctors (Diodorus of Tarsus, Nestorius, and Theodore of Mopsuestia)
• • Six mēmrē on creation
• • Five mēmrē on Parables of Jesus — of the Ten Virgins, of the Prodigal Son, of the rich man and Lazarus, of the Workers in the Vineyard, and of the Tares

See also

• Romanos the Melodist

External links

• Volume 1 of the photographic reproduction of a manuscript of 82 of Narsai's works
• Volume 2