Mor Severios, Patriarch of Antioch (+538)

Mor Severios, Patriarch of Antioch (+538)

Note: The main feast is every year on the Thursday after the Fast of Nineveh.  The commemoration of the dhukrono of St. Severus of Antioch +538 according to the Liturgical Calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church. St. Severus the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch is known by the epithet togho dsuryoye "crown of the Syrians".Born at Sozopolis in the province of Pisidia around AD 459. According to one tradition, his grandfather was one of the bishops who attended the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431). His grandfather, whose name was also Severus, saw in a vision someone telling him, "The child who is for your son will strengthen Orthodoxy, & his name will be after your name."In Alexandria, he studied grammar and rhetorics in both Greek and Latin. He studied jurisprudence and philosophy at the Roman school in Beirut. In 488, he was baptized in Tripoli. He chose the way of asceticism and became a monk at the Monastery of St. Romanus in Mayoma, Palestine. After his priestly ordination, he built a monastery and resided in it 24 years worshipping God, practicing the virtues of asceticism, studying the Holy Bible and the writings of theologians and composing volumes in defense of the Orthodox faith. He became well known and journeyed to Constantinople with 200 monks in 508 to defend the faith. He stayed there around 3 years, until 511. After the removal of Flavianus II, Patriarch of Antioch, Mor Severus was canonically elected to succeed him on the Apostolic see of Antioch. He was enthroned on November 6, 512.During his reign he never deviated from the path of his asceticism and abstinence. He removed luxurious living from the patriarchal palace, while devoting his energy to reform and the dispensation of church affairs by visiting the neighboring dioceses & monasteries in person or by letter. When Justin I, the Chalcedonian, succeeded Anastasius in 518, he called upon him & gave him great honors to persuade him to change his stand and to follow the Emperor's belief, but the Saint refused. The Emperor became angry, & ordered him to be killed. St. Theodora, the wife of Justinian (nephew of Justin I) who was Syriac Orthodox in faith, knowing what the Emperor intended to do, told St. Severus to flee. So Justin banished a group of Orthodox bishops, antagonizing Severus who left for Egypt. Mor Severus was forced to leave Antioch on September 25, and he arrived in the coastal city of Seleucia. From there, he moved to Egypt on September 29, 518.In the absence of its shepherd, Antioch suffered many harsh persecutions; the Chalcedonians seized the opportunity of the exile of Mor Severus and installed illegal patriarchs, starting thus the line of succession of the Chalcedonian Patriarchs.Our saintly Patriarch continued to administer the Church of Antioch from his exile in Egypt for a period of 20 years. He encouraged the believers to remain faithful to the Orthodox faith and wrote letters encouraging them to endure the persecutions. He travelled everywhere & visited monasteries disguised as a monk. He strengthened the faith of the believers in the Orthodox doctrine. God performed through him many miracles. During this period, at the invitation and insistence of the Emperor Justinian, St. Severus attended a meeting for unification in Constantinople in 535; he remained there for a year and a half. When he felt that the meeting was a waste of time, he returned to Egypt with the help of Justinian’s wife, the Syriac Empress Theodora. He died there on February 8, 538.Otto Meinardus writes, "The Coptic Synaxarion commemorates the translation of the relics of Saint Severus from Sakha to the Monastery of al-Zugag (the Ennaton), west of Alexandria [on 10 Kiahk]. Some of the relics of Saint Severus were kept in the tenth-century feretory of the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi al-Natrun. They are now preserved there in a bolster together with other relics." Other portions of his relics were kept at St. Mina Monastery, and were brought to Lebanon in 2018.The Syrian Orthodox Church in its 5th Diptych remembers St. Severus as the crown of Syrians, the eloquent mouth, the pillar & the doctor of the Holy Church of God as a whole, the meadow abounding in blossom who preached all the time that Mary was undoubtedly the God-bearer.Full biography: http://www.soc-wus.org/ourchurch/St.%20Severus,%20Patriarch%20of%20Antioch.htmLife of St. Severus from the Copto-Ethiopic tradition: https://tinyurl.com/mu58vdaaLetter of Patriarch St. Severus of Antioch on his flight to Egypt: https://bit.ly/SeverusLetterFlightThis prayer of Mor Severius is used in the Compline prayers of the Syriac Orthodox Churchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mBC_iyP98EPromiyon Sedro (courtesy Hymonutho): https://bit.ly/3G9FQwQLecture Series - St. Severus of Antioch (courtesy Urho the Way): https://bit.ly/3pxTeoyBL17134