Jacob of Nisibis

Jacob of Nisibis (, ; Greek: Ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος Ἐπίσκοπος Μυγδονίας; Armenian: ), also known as Jacob of Mygdonia,

He was lauded as the "Moses of Mesopotamia", and was the spiritual father of the renowned writer and theologian Ephrem the Syrian. Jacob was present at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea, and is venerated as a saint by the Church of the East, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Eastern Catholic Churches.

Biography

Jacob was the son of prince Gefal, Jacob became famous, and received visits from Sheria, bishop of Arbela , according to the Chronicle of Arbela.

It is stated in legend that Jacob resolved to climb Mount Qardu, traditionally believed to be the resting place of Noah's Ark, and recover a fragment of the ark upon hearing from the hermit Maroukeh that local people doubted the Great Flood. Jacob ascended the mountain and rested close to the summit; in his sleep, an angel placed a fragment of the ark close to him, and instructed him to awake. Also, in one incident, Jacob cursed boastful, promiscuous women by a spring so that their hair became white, and the spring disappeared. The women subsequently repented, and the spring returned; however, the women's hair remained white. However, Jacob is credited as the successor of Babu, the first bishop of Nisibis , by the Catholic Encyclopedia, who Ephrem states was in fact Jacob's successor. Jacob attended the funeral of Metrophanes of Byzantium in 326.

Jacob was present at the siege of Nisibis by Shapur II, Shah of Iran, in 337/338, and according to Theodoret, with encouragement from the city's population and Ephrem, Jacob ascended the walls and prayed for the city, and cursed the besiegers. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum relates that he died on 15 July, the thirtieth day of the siege, according to the Chronicle of 724. Gennadius and Ephrem record that Jacob was buried within the walls of Nisibis. Shapur II challenged him to fight outside the city, where it was revealed he was an apparition and the Iranian army withdrew as a result. His relics were later moved to Constantinople in 970, according to the Menologion of the Armenians at Venice.

Fragments of the Jacob's skull were donated to Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany in 1367 by Lippold von Steinberg after the .

In 2018, his relics were brought from the Armenian Church of Saint George in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, to Canada, where they were taken to the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator in Montreal on 17 June, and the Armenian Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto on 24 June.

Works

Several homilies previously attributed to Jacob by Gennadius of Massilia and others are now understood to be the work of Aphraates. Letters and canons, as well as other works, formerly attributed to Jacob are known to be written in a later period.