Narsai (sometimes spelt Narsay, Narseh or Narses; , name derived from Pahlavi Narsēh from Avestan Nairyō.saȵhō, meaning 'potent utterance'; ) was one of the foremost of the poet- 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 poetry homily are extant.
Life
Narsai was born at ‘Ain Dulba (ܥܝܢ ܕܘܠܒܐ "Plane Tree Spring") in the district of Ma‘alləta (ܡܥܠܬܐ) in the
Sasanian Empire (now in Duhok Governorate,
Iraq).
Being orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his uncle, who was head of the monastery of Kfar Mari (ܕܝܪܐ ܕܟܦܪ ܡܪܝ) near
Beth Zabdai (ܒܝܬ ܙܒܕܝ). 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.
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
[ Lucas Van Rompay , "Narsai", Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage Electronic Edition, edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018)] 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 of seven per line, the other with twelve. The mêmrê were designed to be recited in Church service 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.
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. 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.
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, in his 1970 inventory of Narsai's manuscripts.
List of Narsai's homilies
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| English | |
| | |
| English | |
| English | |
| On Mary
(On the Incarnation) | English | |
| English | |
| English | |
| English
German | |
| | |
| English | |
| French | |
| English | |
| On Supplication
(On Prayer) | English | |
| English | |
| | |
| English | |
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| French | |
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| English | |
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| French | |
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| Italian | |
| English | |
| French | |
| | |
| English
French | Probable forgery |
| McLeod | |
| English | |
| English
French | |
| English
French | |
| McLeod | |
| | |
| | |
| | Probable forgery |
| On New Sunday
(On the New Creation) | English | |
| McLeod | |
| | |
| French | |
| French | |
| On Creation IV
(On the Forming of Adam and Eve) | English
French | |
| | |
| | |
| French | |
| French | |
| | |
| English | |
| | |
| English | |
| English | |
| English | |
| English
German | |
| French | |
| English
French | |
| French | |
| French | |
| French
German | |
| German | |
| English | |
| English | |
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| English | |
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| English | |
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| English | |
| On John 1:14
(On Christology) | English | |
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| | |
| | |
Syriac editions
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Major collection of Narsai's works, containing the full text of 47 memre and the of 34 more —
Published translations
English
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Four mēmrē on baptism and eucharist
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Five mēmrē on dominical feasts — Christmas, Epiphany, Passion of Jesus, Easter, and Ascension of Jesus — these show Narsai's christology opposition to Cyril of Alexandria in a few places
French
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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
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Memra on the Three Doctors (Diodorus of Tarsus, Nestorius, and Theodore of Mopsuestia)
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Six mēmrē on creation myth
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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
German
Italian
See also
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
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of the photographic reproduction of a manuscript of 82 of Narsai's works
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