Babai the Great: Encyclopedia II - Babai the Great - Biography

Babai the Great - Biography

Babai the Great was born in Beth Ainata in Beth Zabdai. Born to a wealthy Persian family, he received a primary education in the Persian (Pahlavi) books. He continued his studies at the Christian School of Nisibis under the directorship of Abraham of Beth Rabban. Somewhere around 571 when the Origenist Henana of Adiabene became the new headmaster and Abraham the Great of Kashkar founded a new monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis, he taught for a while at the Xenodocheio of Nisibis. After that he joined the newly founded monastery of Abraham on Mt. Izla. When Abraham died in 588 Babai left and founded a new monastery and school in his home country Beth Zabdai. In 604 Babai became the third head of Abraham's monastery on Mt. Izla.

Abraham the Great had started a monastic reform movement which Babai and other disciples carried through. Since Bar Sauma and the Synod of Beth Lapat monks and nuns were encouraged to marry. When Babai returned to Mt. Izla in 604, he expelled monks that lived with women and enforced strict discipline, emphasizing a deep life of prayer and solitude. The result was a mass exodus, not only of the married monks. But the Assyrian Church was with Babai.

In 604 the Assyrian Catholicos Sabrisho died and a new Catholicos had to be elected. The synod rejected the candidate of the King Chosroes II and elected Gregory instead. When this Catholicos Gregory died in 608/9 the royal physician Gabriel of Shiggar suggested to make Henana of Adiabene or one of his students Catholicos. All the church was in horror. But until his death in 628 the king did not allow the Assyrian Church to choose a new Catholicos of their own.

To circumvent the royal proscription, Babai the Great was appointed 'visitor of the monasteries' of the north, and administered the church in collaboration with Archdeacon Mar Aba. In particular, this new position allowed Babai to investigate the orthodoxy of the monasteries and monks of northern Mesopotamia, and to enforce discipline throughout the monasteries of northern Mesopotamia, even against occasional resistance.

Babai the Great and Mar Aba administered the Nestorian Church for 17 years until Chosroes II was murdered in 628. After this Babai was promptly elected Catholicos. But he declined. Soon afterward he died in the cell of his monastery, being 75 or 77 years old.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki