Abraham the Great of Kashkar was the father of the Assyrian

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

revival in the 6th century. He is a doctor and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East. He was born in

Kashkar Kashkar, also known as Kaskar, ( syc, ܟܫܟܪ), was a city in southern Mesopotamia. Its name appears to originate from Syriac ' meaning "citadel" or "town". Other sources connect it to ' "farming". It was originally built on the Tigris, across th ...

in Persia around 492. He left there to preach the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

at Al-Hirah, leaving there to study monastic life at

Scetes Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt de ...

. Monasticism was very popular in early Syrian and Mesopotamian

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. Some held the view that only a life of celibacy could lead to salvation. Initially, all monks and nuns were

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

s, but in about 350

Mar Awgin Mar Awgin or Awgen (died 363 AD), also known as Awgin of Clysma or Saint Eugenios, was an Egyptian monk who, according to traditional accounts, introduced Christian monasticism to Syriac Christianity. These accounts, however, are all of late ...

founded the first

cenobitic Cenobitic (or coenobitic) monasticism is a monastic tradition that stresses community life. Often in the West the community belongs to a religious order, and the life of the cenobitic monk is regulated by a religious rule, a collection of prec ...

monastery of Mesopotamia on

Mount Izla Mount Izla ( syr, ܛܘܪ ܐܝܙܠܐ ''Ṭūr Īzlā' ''),Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Izla — ܛܘܪܐ ܕܐܝܙܠܐ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified January 14, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/100. also Mountain of Nisibis or briefly ...

above the city

Nisibis Nusaybin (; '; ar, نُصَيْبِيْن, translit=Nuṣaybīn; syr, ܢܨܝܒܝܢ, translit=Nṣībīn), historically known as Nisibis () or Nesbin, is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009 and is ...

, patterned upon the Egyptian model. Soon there were many monasteries. But at the synod of Beth Lapat the Assyrian Church of the East decided that all monks and nuns should marry. Obviously, this was in order to please the

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

rulers, who held family life sacred. The decision severely weakened the church. The decision was reverted in 553. In 571 Abraham founded and governed a new monastery on Mt. Izla. This became the famous monastery called the "Great Convent". The rules he established in 571 were published with those of Dadisho, his successor (588-604). Abraham died in 586. The third abbot of this monastery was his student Babai the Great (551–628), who succeeded Mar Dadisho.Kitchen, Robert A., "Babai the Great", ''The Orthodox Christian World'', (Augustine Casiday, ed.), Chap. 21, Routledge, 2012
Born to a family of humble means,Bundy, David and Norris, Frederick w. Norris. "Babai the Great", ''Encyclopedia of Early Christianity'', Volume 1, (Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh, Frederick W. Norris, ed.), Taylor & Francis, 1998
Abraham's feast day is celebrated on the 6th Friday after Epiphany.

Notes

References

* Holweck, F. G., ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints''. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co. 1924. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham The Great Of Kashkar 490s births 586 deaths 6th-century Iranian people Monks of the Church of the East Assyrian Church of the East saints Egyptian Christian monks 6th-century Christian saints Christians in the Sasanian Empire