Dionysius of Tel Mahre

Dionysius I of Tel Mahre (818–48) was a patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church. He was born at Tel Mahre, near Raqqa on the Balikh River. In older texts his name is sometimes latinised as Dionysius Telmaharensis.

He spent his earlier years as a monk at the monastery of Qenneshrin on the upper Euphrates; when this monastery was destroyed by fire in 815, he migrated northwards to the monastery of Kaishum in the district of Samosata. On the death of the Jacobite patriarch Quriaqos in 817, the West Syrian Church was agitated by a dispute about the use of the phrase 'heavenly bread' in connection with the Eucharist. An anti-patriarch had been appointed in the person of Abraham of Qartmin, who insisted on the use of the phrase in opposition to the recognized authorities of the church.

His patriarchate

The council of bishops who met at Raqqa in the summer of 818 to choose a successor to Quriaqos had great difficulty in finding a worthy occupant of the patriarchal chair, but finally agreed on the election of Dionysius, hitherto known only as an honest monk who devoted himself to historical studies. Sorely against his will he was brought to Raqqa, ordained deacon and priest on two successive days, and raised to the supreme ecclesiastical dignity on August 1. From this time he showed the utmost zeal in fulfilling the duties of his office, and undertook many journeys both within and without his province. The ecclesiastical schism continued unhealed during the thirty years of his patriarchate. The details of this contest, of his relations with the caliph al-Ma'mun, and of his many travels including a journey to Egypt, on which he viewed with admiration the great Egyptian monuments, are to be found in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Bar Hebraeus. He sent two bishops, Mar Sabor and Mar Proth to India in 825. He died in 848, his last days having been especially embittered by Muslim oppression.

His literary achievement

He was the author of an important historical work, which has seemingly perished except for some passages quoted by the anonymous Chronicle of 1234 (which the 1911 Encyclopædia attributed to Bar-Hebraeus) and by Michael the Syrian, and an extract found by J.S. Assemani in Cod. Vat. 144 and published by him in the Bibliotheca orientalis (ii. 7277). There are also quotes in the Chronicle of Elias of Nisibis. We learn from Michael the Syrian that his Annals consisted of two parts each divided into eight chapters, and covered a period of 260 years, from the accession of the emperor Maurice (582) to the death of Theophilus (843).

For events in the 7th century, Dionysius used the chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa. He disapproved of it for two reasons. First, he implied that Theophilus was one which "composed its narratives in a summary and fragmented fashion without preserving either chronological accuracy nor the order of succession of events". In addition he thought that it "deviates from the truth" - meaning, Theophilus was a Maronite while Dionysius was a rival, Jacobite. Despite that, his Chronicle carries more of Theophilus than did Theophilus's other two translators, Theophanes the Confessor and Agapius the historian.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• "Dionysius Reconstituted" in Andrew Palmer, The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles (TTH 15, Liverpool: SUNY Press, 1993) Part Two / text 13, 85-221

Preceded by Quryaqos of Takrit

Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch 817–845

Succeeded by John III