ʿAbdishoʿ of Gazarta (d. 1567) [Ch. of E., Chald.]

ʿAbdishoʿ bar Yoḥannan d-Beth Maron, monk of the monastery of Mar Aḥa the Egyptian, in the region of Gazarta (Cizre).

ʿAbdishoʿ bar Yoḥannan d-Beth Maron, monk of the monastery of Mar Aḥa the Egyptian, in the region of Gazarta (Cizre), participated in the Synod which deposed Patr. Shemʿon VII bar Mama (1552) and elected Yoḥannan Sullaqa as Patr. cath. Recognized by the Pope, Yoḥannan ordained ʿAbdishoʿ Metr. of Gazarta. After Yoḥannan Sullaqa’s violent death in 1555, ʿAbdishoʿ succeeded him as patr. of the newly established E.-Syr. Uniate (Chaldean) Church. He mainly resided in the Monastery of Yaʿqob the Recluse near Siirt .

He wrote three Syriac panegyrics of unequal length on his predecessor. The first describes the alleged debaucheries of Patr. Shemʿon VII bar Mama, the election of Yoḥannan Sullaqa, his journey to Rome and his profession of faith submitted to the Pope, his consecration as archbishop and patr. and his return to the Middle East. The work ends with an original description of the churches of Rome. The second poem describes the assassination of Yoḥannan Sullaqa at the instigation of Shemʿon VII. The third is a funeral madrāšā. He composed in Syriac a profession of faith, destined to the Roman authorities (original lost, preserved in different Latin redactions and a retroversion into Syriac), an acrostic turgāmā in honor of Pope Paul IV, several liturgical pieces, a grammatical poem, and a memrā on the soul.