Abraham III (Nestorian Patriarch)

Abraham III Abraza was Patriarch of the Church of the East from 906 to 937. He was remembered as a patriarch who was well-versed in his ecclesiastical duties but was also hot-tempered and corrupt.

Brief accounts of Abraham's patriarchate are given in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Jacobite writer Bar Hebraeus (floruit 1280) and in the ecclesiastical histories of the Nestorian writers Mari (twelfth-century), ʿAmr (fourteenth-century) and Sliba (fourteenth-century)

The following account of Abraham's election is given by Bar Hebraeus:

He [Yohannan IV] was succeeded by Abraham III of Beth Garmaï, the bishop of Marga, who was in Baghdad when the catholicus Yohannan died. At that time there lived the scribe ʿAbdallah, son of Shemʿon, a man of very great influence at the king's court. This man procured a royal decree for him, after first obtaining from Abraham a written promise that he would show no favour to the petition of Theodore (who later embraced Islam when he was caught in fornication with an Arab woman, and accepted her among his wives), but would rather show special honour to Shemʿon's son, and raise him to a higher rank than any of his colleagues. So Abraham set out for Seleucia, and was consecrated on the tenth day of the latter kanun [January] in the year 293 of the Arabs [AD 906], on the eleventh day of the third month. He was well versed in his ecclesiastical duties, but was too fond of money and also prone to anger. He secured the catholicate for himself by bribery.

They say that after the death of the catholicus Yohannan the metropolitan of Mosul Yohannan Bar Bokhtishoʿ wrote to ask for Abraham's backing, and that Abraham wrote back advising him to wait for a while and not rush down to Baghdad, so as to avoid a repetition of the events that had followed the death of the catholicus Yunanis. Abraham told him to stay at home until he was able to forge a consensus, and promised to send for Yohannan as soon as he was sure that he would be welcomed with honour. Bar Bokhtishoʿ trusted in Abraham's word, and remained at home awaiting his summons. Meanwhile, Abraham betrayed him and obtained the leadership for himself. When Yohannan heard of this, he was furious and hastened down to Baghdad, but his opposition was of no avail. After a bitter argument between the two men, Yohannan quietly withdrew to the monastery of Mar Pethion. There he was informed that the catholicus Abraham had come to see him and to humble himself before him. Yohannan swore on the gospel, 'If he comes to me, I shall make him sit on the throne of the bishops, in his former seat.' A little while later the catholicus unexpectedly came over to him, and when Yohnnan saw him he stopped him, rose and went over to him, and made him sit above him. Then Abraham said to him, 'Father, you are worthier than I, and the office of catholicus should by rights be yours, not mine. I wish to hand over the office to you, and ask only that you make me your vicar and treat me as your disciple.' Yohannan was touched by his humility, and left with him and took part with him in the celebration of the mysteries. On the same day Abraham conceded to Yohannan all the privileges of reading the gospel and praying, and treated him with honour. Afterwards Yohannan’s friends reproached him for swearing on oath to do one thing and then doing the opposite. He said to them, 'Believe me, I really intended to snub him. But as soon as I saw him, my reason prevailed over my will, and I no longer felt inclined to break the law and deny him the honour due to his rank.'

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