Mor Barsawmo (+ 457), the chief among Mourners (Ris'ho Dabile)

Mor Barsawmo (+ 457), the chief among Mourners (Ris'ho Dabile)

The commemoration of St. Barsawmo according to the liturgical calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Mor Barsawmo is remembered in the 5th Dypthic as the 'Chief among Mourners' Mor Barsaumo (Barsaumo is a Syriac compound word from Bar– Son, Saumo– Fast, meaning ‘the son of fast’) In his childhood he was tutored by Mor Abraham the Great, the high mountain ascetic close to Samosata where he acquired piety & the fear of God that led his way towards asceticism. After his teacher’s death he decided to pay a walking visit to the holy land. He wore a sackcloth dress & walked towards Palestine empty handed. After a tough journey he arrived to the holy land & received blessings. When he returned he went into seclusion while feeding himself with the plants & fruits of the wilderness. The villagers built him a monastery and was joined first by one then by three people and as time passed the number increased. In a quiet summer evening he stood outside his cell, lifted his eyes and saw the shining stars in the sky as pearls over a black velvet. He was in awe and he murmured, saying, “the servant doesn’t dare to sit in the presence of his master, so how could I dare to sit in the presence of the Creator of heaven and earth . . ! From that time on he crucified himself in front of God. This is what his biographer and student Samuel wrote in praising him: (Barsaumo, who stood trials and tribulations on the cross in front of his Lord for Fifty years. He looked like an iron pole never sleepy day and night; his body was bent from dawn to dusk. His days are finished and his supplications were sealed, and when he finished his prayers he departed to his Lord). In 449AD he was recalled by Emperor Flavius Theodosius II (10 April 401 – 28 July 450), to attend the second Ephesus Synod representing the heads of the holy monasteries. But he was a zealous Orthodoxy defender & urging the faithful to hold tight to their Orthodox doctrine, the faith of the three holy Ecumenical Synods, refusing the Chalcedon Synod & its followers until he was arrested & brought to the capital city for trial. The judge screamed in his face, saying, “Don’t you know that I can send you in exile to the land where there is no water?” The saint replied, saying “The Lord of fountains will send me rain from heaven or spring forth from the earth, so can you send me where there is no God?” The judge answered with pride, saying, “Yes I can.” The saint said, “There is no place where God doesn’t exist except on the throne that you are sitting on, and the throne which your king Marcian sits on. If you send me into exile to these two places, God will come there for my sake.” The judge was so angry that he swore to cut him into pieces. Mor Barsaumo said to him, “O, you, your father & master Theodosius & out of respect he used to stand in my presence, & yet you are trying & threatening me? Let me tell you that you shall not judge another case.” The judge left his seat trembling & he soon died. The Chalcedon bishops wrote to many churches excommunicating him but their letters were rejected. People were enraged denouncing this excommunication & declaring their support to Mor Barsaumo & his Orthodox doctrine. Seeing that their scheme failed, the Chalcedon bishops pressed king Marcianus to send a military force to arrest him. When the saint heard the news, he said: “I have great hope in Christ that Marcianus’ authority will not run over me because my death will take him out of the land of the living.”Indeed, as soon as the soul of the Orthodox great ascetic departed to heavenly abodes on February 3, 457 AD, Marcianus perished. For full biography visit: http://soc-wus.org/2010%20News/242010141352.php On MASOCNA calendar