Orestes of Jerusalem

Orestes Hieremias , also called Ariston, was the Melkite Patriarch of Jerusalem from 15 January 986 until his death on 3 February 1006.

Life Orestes was most likely of Byzantine Greek origin, possibly of the provincial aristocracy of Sicily who were captured in the wars against the Byzantines there sometime before 965. His sister became a favourite concubine of the Fatimid caliph al-Aziz Billah , and mother of the celebrated princess Sitt al-Mulk. Nothing is known of his early life. He lived at the court of al-Aziz for many years. He may be the monk whom the caliph sent to the Kalbid emir of Sicily, Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi to secure the surrender of some Byzantine fortresses and prisoners previously captured by his grandfather Hasan. Ja'far mistreated the envoy, who left for Constantinople, from where he wrote to al-Aziz to inform him of Ja'far's disobedience.

Between 980 and 985 Orestes spent time in Italy, including Rome. There he met several Calabrian hermit-saints whose biographies he later he wrote. Through his sister's influence he was appointed Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem in January 986, while his brother Arsenios became metropolitan bishop of Fustat and Cairo and later the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria. Other modern scholars consider the brothers to have been related to a different concubine, the mother of Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah , and thus maternal uncles to the caliph.

In 992, Orestes and Patriarch Elias I of Alexandria sent envoys to Pope John XV, reportedly to seek counsel on incorporating Monophysites into the church, at a time when the Byzantine Empire was expanding at the expense of the Arabs, and to receive the right to consecrate the altar cloth. These reasons, reported by the Roman abbot Leo, are most likely garbled or incorrect, but the embassy is likely historical. Orestes personally knew Christopher and his two sons. He completed the biography of Sabas (BHG 1611) shortly after the latter's death in 991 and that of his father and brother (BHG 312) sometime between the Makarios's death in 1001 and his own death five years later. The biography of Christopher and Makarios consists of nineteen chapters on Christopher followed by a brief four-chapter encomium on Makarios.

Editions Cozza-Luzi, I. . Rome, 1893.