Michael the Syrian

"Michael the Great" redirects here; not to be confused with Great Michael.

Michael the Syrian, also known as Michael the Great (Syriac: ܡܝܟܐܝܠ ܪܒܐ, romanized: Mīkāʾēl Rabbā; 1126 – 7 November 1199), was the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 1166 until his death in 1199. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church, remembered both as a saint and as a historian.

Michael the Syrian
Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church
See	Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
In office	1166–1199
Predecessor	Athanasius VII bar Qatra
Successor	Athanasius VIII
Personal details
Born	1126 Melitene, Danishmend Kingdom (modern-day Malatya, Turkey)
Died	1199 (aged 72–73) Melitene, Sultanate of Rûm (modern-day Malatya, Turkey)
Buried	Mor Bar Sauma Monastery

His monumental Chronicle is the largest surviving Syriac historical work, covering world history from Creation until his own time. Modern scholars describe it as "undoubtedly the greatest of all Syriac chronicles” and a cornerstone of medieval historiography. Michael also composed canonical, liturgical, and theological writings, leaving a lasting imprint on the intellectual life of the Syriac tradition. He is venerated in the Oriental Orthodox Communion and his feast day in the Syriac Orthodox Church is November 7, the date of his repose.

Life

The life of Michael is recorded by Bar Hebraeus. Michael the Great was born in Melitene (modern Malatya, Turkey) into a Syriac Orthodox priestly family. His father, Reverend Eliya (Elias) al-Qindasi (Qîndîsî), was a priest, and his uncle Athanasius Zakkai (or Zakka) was a monk who later became bishop of Anazarbus in Cilicia in 1136.^[1][2] He thus belonged to the distinguished Qindasi family. At the time of his birth, Melitene was part of the Turkoman Danishmend dynasty, and after its division in 1142 it became the capital of a principality. In 1178, the city came under the control of the Sultanate of Rûm.

As a youth, Michael joined the Monastery of Mar Barsauma near Melitene, which had served as the patriarchal seat of the Syriac Orthodox Church since the 11th century. After completing his theological studies, he was ordained a monk. Before reaching the age of thirty, he was appointed archimandrite (abbot) of the monastery, a position he held for nearly a decade. During this tenure, Michael enlarged the monastery’s library, added new buildings, and rebuilt the water supply system, ensuring that it could accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who gathered annually for the feast of Saint Barsauma. He also took measures to improve the monastery’s defenses against marauding bandits.^[1][2]

Michael soon gained a reputation as both a historian and theologian. In 1165, Patriarch Athanasius VII (1139–1166) sought to ordain him bishop of Amid (modern Diyarbakir), but Michael declined in order to devote himself to study. Following the patriarch’s death in 1166, the Holy Synod met at Dayr Fesqin (or Peshqîn) near Melitene to elect his successor. After much debate, Michael was proposed as one of three candidates. Though initially reluctant, he accepted on the condition that the synod agree to enforce certain canons aimed at strengthening the church in its time of turmoil. Dionysios Jacob Bar Salibi, bishop of Marash and Mabbug, preached in his favor, and Michael was unanimously elected and consecrated Patriarch of Antioch on 18 October 1166, in the presence of 28 bishops.^[1][3]

Patriarchate

Michael was the first Syriac Orthodox patriarch to act within the city of Antioch itself since the expulsion of Severus of Antioch by Justinian in the 6th century, and he consecrated a number of bishops there.^[4] He established his primary patriarchal residence at the Monastery of Deyruelzafaran in Mardin, while also spending significant time at Mar Barsauma.^[5] Immediately after his election, he contacted Pope John I of Alexandria (Yohanna ibn Abi Ghalib), in keeping with the traditional bonds between the Syriac and Coptic patriarchates. Michael also traveled extensively through the Levant. In 1168 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, staying at the Monastery of Mary Magdalene near the Damascus Gate (Bāb al-'Amūd), and subsequently resided for a year at Antioch, which was under Crusader rule. In Antioch and Jerusalem, he was received with great respect by the Latin patriarchs and nobility, cultivating cordial relations with figures such as Amaury de Nesle, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.^[2][6]

Michael was invited in 1178 to attend the Third Lateran Council in Rome by Pope Alexander III but he declined, though he sent a theological treatise in his stead.^[2] He likewise refused overtures from Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who attempted to negotiate ecclesiastical union. On three occasions (1170, 1172, and thereafter), Michael declined to travel to Constantinople or meet imperial envoys, instead sending representatives and responding with clear affirmations of the Syriac Orthodox Miaphysite faith.

As patriarch, Michael appointed twenty-five bishops, reformed lax clerical practices, and combated simony. His reforms provoked opposition, and he faced several rebellions from bishops and clergy. In 1171 and again in 1176, monks of Mar Barsauma rebelled against him. In 1174, he deposed Yuhanna al-Qaluniqi, bishop of Mardin, who retaliated by agitating the emir of Mosul and ruler of Mardin against Michael. Further opposition came from Bar Masih and culminated in the consecration of Theodore bar Wahbun as anti-patriarch in Cilicia around 1180. Supported by discontented clergy, the Armenian king, the Catholicos of Armenia, and even at times the Crusaders — all of whom claimed jurisdictions over the Syrians of Cilicia — Theodore appealed in vain to Saladin for recognition. Michael excommunicated him, and after his escape from imprisonment at Mar Barsauma, Theodore sought refuge with the Armenian Catholicos Gregory IV and Prince Leo II of Cilician Armenia, who officially recognized him. The schism persisted for 13 years until Theodore’s death in 1193, when the Syriac Orthodox synod reaffirmed loyalty to Michael.^[2][3][4]

Despite these challenges, Michael maintained wide prestige. He cultivated diplomatic relations with Muslim and Christian rulers alike, including Sultan Kilij Arslan II of Rûm, whom he met cordially at Melitene in 1182. He supported Pope Mark III of Alexandria in the excommunication of Mark ibn Kunbar during the Egyptian controversy on confession. In his Chronicle, Michael lamented the suffering of Middle Eastern Christians under Latin occupation, particularly in Jerusalem.^[2]

Late in his life, amidst the controversies with Theodore bar Wahbun and the burdens of office, Michael attempted to resign in 1193, but the synod refused his abdication. He continued his patriarchate until his death on 7 November 1199 at the Monastery of Mar Barsauma, aged 72, having served 33 years as patriarch.^[1] During his patriarchate, Michael ordained one Maphrian and 54 bishops.^[6] He was buried in a tomb he had constructed in advance, located north of the altar of the monastery church. His successor was Athanasius IX (1199–1207), also abbot of Mar Barsauma; a rival claimant, Michael II the Younger, contested him and later became antipatriarch instead of Athanasius.^[3]

Chronicle

Composition and Structure

Michael is best known for the World Chronicle that he composed, the longest and richest surviving chronicle in the Syriac language.^[7] The Chronicle is the most extensive Syriac historical work ever written, comprising 21 books from the Creation of the world down to 1194.^[8][9] It was composed in a unique three-column format: the first column for secular and political history, the second for ecclesiastical affairs, and the third for natural phenomena such as earthquakes, locust swarms, and celestial events.^[1][10] Between chapters, Michael inserted chronological tables that synchronized different systems of dating — the Seleucid era, the Nativity, Olympiads, and the Hijra (used exclusively in reference to Muslim caliphs). A small miscalculation in aligning Seleucid and Nativity dates runs through the work. This method built upon the tables of Eusebius of Caesarea, expanded by Jacob of Edessa, and later developed by Michael himself.^[1][11]

This new format of separate columns outlining different historical sections was used earlier by Syriac Orthodox hierarchs such as John of Ephesus, Dionysius of Tell Mahre, and Bar Hebraeus. It was reserved for senior hierarchs, highlighting the important mission that accompanied it.^[11]

Michael occasionally devoted all three columns to a single subject when greater detail was needed.^[10] After the chronicle ends abruptly, it is followed by six appendices. The first appendix summarizes the kings and patriarchs cited in the text. The second appendix is a treatise on the historical identity of the Syrians, associating them with ancient Near Eastern empires which are the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Arameans.^[12]

Manuscripts and Translations

The autograph of Michael the Great’s Chronicle is lost. What survives is a much later copy of a copy: it was transcribed in 1598 by Bishop Michael of Urbish, 4 centuries after the author’s death,^[13] and was itself based on an earlier copy produced by Moses of Mardin.^[14] The scribe preserved Michael’s style, while correcting errors in the margins — sometimes with remarks such as "This was in the year 1909 of the perfidious and corrupt Greeks," echoing Michael’s own hostility toward Byzantine persecutions against the Jacobites.^[1] The surviving codex, written in elegant script on roughly 800 large folios, was preserved in the library of Edessa, though 19 folios are missing.^[15] This Edessene manuscript remained in Urfa until 1924, when the city’s Christian population was expelled in the aftermath of the Assyrian genocide; it was then moved to the Syriac Orthodox church of St. George in Aleppo. The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library digitized it in 2008.^[1]

The Syriac Manuscript Tradition

The 1598 Urbish copy remains the only extant Syriac witness of the text, written in in Serto script^[16], although other transcriptions based on it exist. The manuscript was discovered in Edessa and subsequently copied for modern scholars. One such copy was made for the Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Rahmani in 1887, and another for the French orientalist Jean-Baptiste Chabot in 1899 (a digital facsimile is available in vHMML Reading Room). The Vorlage for these later copies is preserved today by the Edessene community in Aleppo. The text has lacunae, corresponding exactly to the gaps in the Arabic versions made from it. Despite these defects, the 1598 codex is regarded as the best surviving witness to the Chronicle’s original layout and presentation.^[4][12]

Armenian Translation

An abridged Armenian translation was produced in 1248 by the Assyrian priest Yeshu' (Isho') ibn-Shammas Ya'qub al-Tume al-Sharqi, a native of Hisn Kifa, at the request of Catholicos Constantine I of Cilicia. The work was not a literal translation but a condensed adaptation, often altering the material considerably. It was later revised by the monk Vardan. Two Jerusalem editions appeared in 1870 and 1871, with the latter considered more reliable.^[9][15][2].

This Armenian version was the first form of Michael’s Chronicle to reach Europe. It served as the basis for the French translation published in 1868 by Victor Langlois, who mistakenly assumed it was a complete rendering of the Syriac original.^[2]

Arabic (Garshuni) Translation

The Chronicle was also translated into Garshuni (Arabic in Syriac script) by John Shuqayr (Hanna al-Sadadi), metropolitan of Damascus, in 1759. At least five manuscripts of this translation survive.^[8][15] However, since Shuqayr worked directly from the 1598 Urbish copy, the Arabic version preserves the same lacunae as the Syriac Vorlage.^[9][4]

Other Arabic renderings exist, including a more recent translation provided by the late Archbishop Saliba Shamoun (1932–2025) and edited by Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim.^[2]

Western Scholarship and Editions

Knowledge of Michael’s Chronicle in Europe began only in the 18th century, and even then it was largely ignored — Joseph Assemani did not reference it despite his access to Syriac sources.^[2] The Armenian adaptation initially misled scholars, as it was thought to represent a faithful translation. Serious study began only in the mid-19th century, when manuscripts of the Armenian text reached Europe.

In 1899–1910, J. B. Chabot published a French translation in four volumes (Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d’Antioche, 1166–1199), based on the Syriac manuscript in Edessa. His work included a facsimile edition of the Syriac text prepared between 1897 and 1899, though some scribal errors were introduced in the copying process.^[8][4]

In 2014, Matti Moosa published the first complete English translation of the Chronicle, titled The Syriac Chronicle of Michael Rabo (the Great).

Content and Themes

Secular and Political Affairs

The first column of the Chronicle records wars and conflicts among Arabs, Turks, Byzantines, Latins (Crusaders), and Armenians.

Michael paid particular attention to the Crusaders. He devotes long passages to the Knights Templar, praising their asceticism, obedience, fraternity, and generosity in famine relief. While theological divisions remained, he considered the Latins more favorable allies than Greeks, who consistently persecuted the Syriac Orthodox (see Caesaropapism).^[1]

Michael describes the devastating sieges of Edessa in the 12th century, whose population suffered the most under the hands of successive invaders. Caught between Franks, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, and their internal conflicts, Edessa was besieged repeatedly, each time producing severe persecution of its defenseless citizens: death, torture, imprisonment, humiliation, starvation, slavery, and rape. Many structures were dismantled for building material or repurposed — for example, the Church of St. Thomas was used as a stable. Michael places great blame on the Franks, whom he sometimes preferred to Turks or Greeks, who routinely pillaged the city and subjugated its native Miaphysite population; even when their victory was hoped for during the Turkish occupation, he calls them "brainless fools" for plundering shops and houses instead of attacking the Turkish soldiers in the citadel, which contributed to their defeat. After this disaster, Edessa fell into moral and spiritual decline, with Christians reduced to a minority as mosques multiplied.^[17]

After the disaster of 1146, the city declined morally and its native Syrian inhabitants were spiritually broken. Christians became a minority while the Muslim population grew and more mosques were built. Edessa was later absorbed by the Ayyubids, the Mongol conquests of Tatars and Hulaguids, and finally the Ottoman Empire, and its Christian population was largely eliminated during the persecutions that culminated in the early 20th century. By 1908, Christians constituted only about 19% of the population; on the eve of the mass exodus in 1924, the Syriac Orthodox numbered roughly 2,500. Today there are no Christians remaining in Şanlıurfa.^[17]

Ecclesiastical Affairs

The second column focuses on the church, particularly in ecclesiastical matters, which make up a large section — this was due to how at the time, the Syriac Orthodox Church extended across the Levant, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, and was governed by mutually antagonistic factions. Here, Michael recorded relations with neighboring communities. He chastises the "Synodites" (Chalcedonians/Byzantines) for their persecutions, claiming they devoted more energy to oppressing the Syriac people than resisting Turks. In contrast, relations with the Coptic Church were warm, and regular correspondence between patriarchs was reported.^[1]

Michael’s theology portrays Christianity as independent of territory or temporal power. Like earlier Syriac chroniclers, a comparison is made to ancient Mesopotamian beliefs, where he interprets successes and failures in history as signs of divine favor or abandonment.^[1][18]

Natural Phenomena

The third column registers natural events: earthquakes across Antioch, Damascus, and Constantinople; locusts; and comets, which Michael called kawkbō šūšīnō ("curly star"), preserving Syriac terminology over Greek loanwords. He rebukes astrologers for their attempts to predict events, including times when they failed to do so, affirming instead that disasters came from divine judgment, not planetary influence.

Michael’s mastery of Syriac is noted as advanced and traditional, though he also read and spoke Arabic, and commended other bishops for their knowledge. His Chronicle includes occasional Arabisms in colloquial dialect, as well as Syriacized borrowings from Greek, Armenian, and Latin.^[1]

Historiography and Sources

While he rarely mentions sources for some periods — likely drawing on memory and oral traditions — he does name a few: 1. Jacob of Edessa, Michael’s main source for the pre‑7th century; 2. Dionysius of Tell Mahre, whose chronicle no longer survives; 3. Basil Bar‑Shumono, whom Michael quoted on early Edessan history; 4. Dionysius bar Salibi, whom Michael called an exceptional writer; 5. Patriarch John bar Shushan, whom Michael does not quote directly but reports his work; 6. Joseph the Monk, whom Michael quoted for the invasion of Miletus in 1050 AD; 7. Ignatius bishop of Melitene, whom Michael quotes at length regarding the Syriac Orthodox faith before the Chalcedonian patriarch of Constantinople; and 8. Evenaius of Keshum, whom Michael refutes for claiming that temptation strikes the righteous without the will of God, thereby undermining divine providence. He also quoted lost works, such as the Chronicle of Azakh, letters, synodal acts, and local biographies. Greek historians, ecclesiastical pamphlets, and unnamed Arabic sources were also used.^[1][2][18]

Michael freely inserted biblical parallels into his historical narrative, a tendency scholars term "presentism." He likened the Syriac Orthodox to the Israelites, the Nestorians to Judas, and the Seljuks to Jezebel. Turks were cast as Gog and Magog, while Kilij Arslan, Sultan of Iconium, was seen as fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy. Biblical portents were linked to earthquakes, eclipses, or comets, read as divine warnings preceding invasions.^[19]

A consoling sub‑strategy was to portray the true believers as a righteous minority in a sinful world. The events of the Council of Chalcedon are compared to the events of Exodus 32, and to the three who remained faithful in Persia when all the captives of Judah worshipped the statue; Michael applies this to the multitude at Chalcedon, calling them the synod of the apostates. He also cites "one who does the will [of God] is better than one thousand" (Eccl. 16:3). A recurring emphasis is that the saved are always a minority, and that the church's size or prestige does not matter so long as it upholds true doctrine.^[19]

His historical outlook emphasized that punishment follows sin, but calamities can be alleviated through repentance. He cited the plague of 745, which abated only when even the Arab caliph Marwan II repented.^[19]

The general view that developed in Syriac historiography is that disasters are caused by sin and are sent to punish sin and to teach people not to sin, but that disasters can also be relieved or averted by repentance and eventually by the intervention of the Church and its relics. This included the belief that God sends warning signs of impending disaster for those who have the sense to understand them. Since the schism caused by the Council of Chalcedon, God sent portents involving the sun, earthquakes, and tearful signs in the sky that were taken to indicate the wickedness of the heretics and what would come upon the earth. But the warnings were not heeded, so God sent the barbarians.^[19]

Michael the Syrian gives examples of such warning signs. He reports that when three stones fell from the sky in the mid‑fifth century, many people thought they were a sign of corruption in the churches, the expulsion of the Orthodox confession, and the introduction of the perverse heresy of the Dyophysites. The darkness that covered the earth when Marcion took the crown signified the darkness he would cause and blindness for the religion. A comet that appeared at the beginning of the reign of Justin I, like a large menacing lance pointing down, was seen as a sign of the apostasy and ruin of the Church that was about to come. When a sword appeared in the sky stretching from south to north for thirty days in 634, many thought it signified the coming of the Arabs. When three columns of fire appeared in the sky in 745, and in 746 dust obscured the sky from the beginning of March to mid‑April, with meteors from the beginning of January and a great column of fire in the sky, everyone said these signs indicated war, bloodshed, scourges, and punishments.^[19]

He criticized Byzantine rulers like Heraclius for mutilating Syriac Orthodox dissenters. Heraclius ordered the noses and ears cut off and houses looted for anyone who did not support the Council of Chalcedon. This persecution persisted for an extended period, and many monks — particularly those from Beit Maron, Mabbugh, Hims, and the southern regions — supported the council and seized control of numerous churches and monasteries. Michael reports that Christians are unfit to govern other Christians, and despite persecution in the Sassanid regions, he regarded it as preferable to Roman rule, which he portrays as intent on destroying both the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East by continuously slaughtering the Syriac Christians. He further claims that the Islamic conquests functioned simultaneously as punishment for the Chalcedonians and as a providential rescue for the Miaphysites, who, he argues, would not have survived without them — despite the severe hardships the church later suffered under Muslim rule. Michael also recounts that the Orthodox bishop Epiphanius fled the Arab conquest of Syria only to be killed as a martyr by the Roman general Gregorius in Cilicia. He adds that when the Romans withdrew from Syria, they robbed, pillaged, and devastated the country more than the Arabs, treating it as if it belonged to an enemy. Michael then remarks, "if the Arabs did not keep their promises, neither did the Romans — and not only toward the Arabs but among themselves."^[19]

Identity and Geography

Michael’s Chronicle articulates both confessional and ethnic identities. Above all, he defined the mhaymne ("faithful"), meaning Syriac Orthodox believers — whether Syriac-, Armenian-, or Arabic-speaking.[Weltecke, Michael the Syrian] Yet because of the geopolitical circumstances of his era, he felt it necessary to define his people and faith in more nationalistic and secular terms; accordingly, he consistently connected them to the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia, identifying their kings as his own ancestors. He used names like "Assyria" (Ātōr), "Nineveh," and "Babylonia" for regions of Mesopotamia, explicitly as ancestral lands rather than mere biblical allusions.^[1][20]

He did not usee the term "Anatolia", preferring Cappadocia or Nicomedia, and referred to northern Syria as "the land of the Aramaic-speaking sons of Aram." The Melkites (ethnic Syrians who followed the Council of Chalcedon after imperial crackdown) were disparagingly labeled "Greeks" rather than Syrians.^[21] Both Byzantine and Muslim critics mocked the Syriac Christians for "never producing kingdoms," to which Michael countered by citing Assyria and Babylonia as their sovereign ancestors.^[22][11]

Attributed to Jacob of Edessa (d. 708), transmitted via Dionysius of Tellmahre (d. 945), and later adopted by Michael, the Syriac account reframes ancient history to claim powerful "Syrian" kingdoms east and west of the Euphrates. Syriac authorities used this narrative to assert their historical sovereignty despite lacking contemporary kings. Framed against Byzantine Greeks, Michael portrays Alexander the Great as restoring a native "Syrian" power — placing him between Chaldean and Assyrian (Aramaic‑speaking) kingdoms and showing that empires of Syrian origin once rivaled or surpassed others, including of Mesopotamian origin that defeated the Persian kings.^[23]

Significance

Until the rediscovery of the Chronicle, Michael the Great was primarily known in the West as an author of canonical and liturgical writings. The publication of his universal history dramatically shifted scholarly appreciation of his importance. His work extends from Creation to his own day (late 12th century), and is based on a wide array of sources, many of which are now lost.^[8]

These include Syriac chronicles such as those of Jacob of Edessa, John of Litharb, Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, as well as non-Orthodox Syriac authors like Elias of Nisibis and Theophilus of Edessa. Michael also cites local chronicles, council records, biographies, theological pamphlets, and Greek historians, alongside letters and official reports. He drew heavily on John of Asia for the period of Emperor Tiberius III.^[2]

Medieval and modern scholars alike have hailed Michael’s work as "undoubtedly the greatest of all Syriac chronicles."^[9] It preserves priceless excerpts from otherwise lost Syriac historians, including Dionysius of Tell-Mahre. Scholars emphasize that Michael’s historiographical method was consistent with medieval practice but rooted in the strong tradition of Syriac Christian historical writing, which shaped the historiography of the Syriac Orthodox Church, culminating in Bar Hebraeus (1226–1286), who drew extensively on Michael.^[21]

Although Moses of Mardin collaborated with European scholars in the 16th century, the Chronicle itself remained unknown in Europe until the Armenian version circulated in the 19th century. Joseph Assemani ignored it, and it was only through Chabot’s edition that it entered mainstream Oriental studies. Today, the Chronicle remains a central source for the history of Byzantium, Islam, Crusades, and the medieval Near East, in addition to its role in preserving Syriac identity.

As Michael started to write more personally in the last parts of his chronicle, compassion and sensitivity become visible, sadness about death through violence and war, sympathy for living beings in pain; all were prevalent elements in his later writings.^[10]

Other works

Although best remembered for his monumental Chronicle, Michael the Great was also an active theologian, liturgist, and ecclesiastical legislator. His surviving and attributed writings demonstrate the breadth of his intellectual, pastoral, and historical activity within the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[2][15]

Liturgical and Canonical Writings

• Anaphora — preserved in several manuscripts (six in European collections), including a collection of prayers arranged alphabetically.
• Liturgy in 16 pages — arranged according to the alphabet, beginning with the invocation: "Almighty God and Lord of all, make us worthy to draw near to this great divine mystery."
• Definitive structure of the pontificate and its rituals — a revision of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and rituals (partly edited in later centuries).
• Canons — a collection of twenty-nine canons enacted at the Monastery of Mar Hananya in 1166, followed by twelve more in 1174; several were cited by Bar Hebraeus in his Nomocanon.
• Sedra and Busqyos — including two busqyos (liturgical hymns), one dedicated to St. Barsauma, both of which entered the liturgy of the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Homilies, Poetry, and Encomia

• Homilies — a large collection for Sundays and church feasts; the Edessene Chronicler notes that Michael transcribed in his own hand a huge volume of existing homilies and added his own compositions.
• Metric Homilies — two in verse, one on John of Mardin and the other on Barsouma.
• Poems and Odes:
  • A heptasyllabic ode (1159) on a young woman martyred for her faith in Tal'afar.
  • A dodecasyllabic ode (1167) praising John, Metropolitan of Mardin (d. 1165).
  • Another dodecasyllabic ode in praise of St. Barsauma, partially preserved (28 pages extant).
  • Short poems, including one on the Bishop of Mardin.
• Encomia — including one dedicated to Dionysios bar Salibi.

Theological and Polemical Writings

• Confession of Faith — composed in Antioch and addressed to Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1169.
• Arguments against the Albigensians (Albigeois) — written in Antioch and sent to Manuel I in 1178, intended for the Lateran Council, though Michael ultimately declined to attend in person.
• Treatise on confession before communion — a polemical response to Mark Ibn Kunbar, a12th-century Coptic priest of the Alexandrian Church.
• Treatise against falsifications of Mark, son of Qanbar the Copt — likely composed in Arabic, though some attribution is disputed.
• Letter on Simeon the Stylite — Michael preserves and affirms Simeon’s opposition to the Council of Chalcedon by citing his letter to Emperor Leo, countering Chalcedonian claims.^[24]

Biographical and Historical Works

• Revision of the Life of Mar Abbai of Nicaea — undertaken in 1185, drawing from earlier Syriac sources such as John Rufus.
• Reconstruction of the biography of Abbai of Nicaea — preserved in a manuscript dated 1196 in the British Museum.
• Obituary of Mar Barsaumo.
• Recommendation for Bar Wahbun (1172) — a letter of recommendation when sending him to meet a Byzantine delegate to discuss potential union of the churches following the brief schism.

Veneration and Legacy

Michael the Great
Mor Michael Rabo
Born	Michael ܡܝܟܐܝܠ
Honored in	Oriental Orthodox Churches, especially Syriac Orthodox Church
Feast	November 7
Tradition or genre	Syriac Christianity

Michael the Great is one of the most highly venerated saints in the Oriental Orthodox communion, especially within the Syriac Orthodox Church, where he is remembered for his scholarship, sanctity, and wisdom. His feast is celebrated on November 7, the anniversary of his repose in 1199.^[25]

The late Patriarch Ephrem Barsoum of the Syriac Orthodox Church describes him as ‘one of the greatest pontiffs of the Church of God, the finest of the Patriarchs of Antioch, a scholar, and a famous chronicler; of everlasting name, of graceful pursuit, and of uncommon qualities, of widely known virtues, and of good deeds’. Patriarch Barsoum converses with him saying, ‘Is it not right for the general history of the world to remember your honorable name since you have written those volumes that are full of the events of the ages, from their inception until your happy reign, for you have brought to life what took place, and had it not been for you, these would have been totally forgotten? Indeed, it is befitting to do so for the world in general and for your nation in particular. Your greatness is manifest not only in this, but also in the fact that you were magnificent in your virtues, endurance and self-esteem. You were great in your Patriarchal works. It is no wonder that history describes you as The Great’."^[6]

The 800th Anniversary (1999)

On the 800th anniversary of his passing in 1999, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch declared it the "Year of Saint Michael the Great." A solemn Divine Liturgy was celebrated in honor Mor Michael Rabo at St. Ephrem’s Monastery in Ma'arrat Saydnaya. Although a symposium of scholars and orientalists had been planned for Aleppo, it was ultimately convened at the Patriarchal Theological Seminary at St. Ephrem’s Monastery in Saydnaya between October 1–8, 1999.^[6]

Scholarly Legacy and Enduring Influence

Michael’s Chronicle is regarded as the most voluminous historical work in the Syriac Orthodox tradition, foundational to later historiography.^[26] Sebastian Brock describes it as "undoubtedly the greatest of all Syriac chronicles".^[9] His era catalyzed what scholars call the "Syriac Renaissance", a period of cultural and theological revival within the Syriac Orthodox Church^[27].

Michael is further remembered as a poet, canonist, and defender of the faith, whose example continues to inspire Syriac Orthodox faithful to "hold to the faith, work according to the law of the Lord, persist in it day and night, and comply with the Canon of the Church… that it may keep us within the fold of Christ Jesus, our Lord."^[6]

Following the Assyrian genocide, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal See was forcibly relocated from Mardin, Turkey in 1924 — a patriarchal seat that had been established by Michael himself in 1166 and remained until that moment.^[4]