Ignatius Noah of Lebanon

Ignatius Noah of Lebanon
Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
Church	Syriac Orthodox Church
See	Antioch
Installed	1493
Term ended	1509
Predecessor	Ignatius John XIII
Successor	Ignatius Yeshu I
Personal details
Birth name	Noah
Born	1451 Baqufa, Mamluk Sultanate
Died	28 July 1509 Hama, Mamluk Sultanate
Residence	Monastery of Mor Hananyo

Ignatius Noah of Lebanon was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1493 until his death in 1509.^[1]

Biography

Noah was born in 1451 in the village of Baqufa, near Tripoli, into a Maronite family originally from Damascus.^[2] At an early age, Noah and his brother were converted to Syriac Orthodoxy by the metropolitan bishop of Syria, Mor Dioscurus. As a result, Noah became a monk and priest, at the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian where he studied the Syriac language and religious sciences under Thomas of Homs.

In 1480, Noah was ordained metropolitan of Homs, upon which he took the name Cyril. Subsequently, he taught among the Maronites and converted many priests and their congregations to Syriac Orthodoxy.^[3] Nine years later. he was ordained the Maphrian of the East, and in 1493 was consecrated patriarch of Antioch, and adopted the name Ignatius.

As patriarch, he was involved in a jurisdictional dispute with Ignatius Mas'ud of Zaz, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Tur Abdin, who had appointed a metropolitan for the town of Ma’dan, which was out of his jurisdiction.^[1] During his tenure as patriarch, Noah ordained thirteen metropolitans and bishops before his death on the 28th of July 1509.

Works

Noah is known to have been a mediocre poet and a writer who wrote odes and verse pieces, as well as a hymn in Arabic on the Virgin Mary and a very brief historical tract.

References

1. Swanson, Mark N. (2007) The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt: The Popes of Egypt: A History American University In Cairo Press, Cairo, Egypt, volume 2, page 126, ISBN 977-416-093-2
2. The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences - Ignatius Aphrem I Barsoum.
3. Salibi, Kamal Suleiman (1959) Maronite historians of mediæval Lebanon American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, page 86, OCLC 2011960