Joseph Busnaya, in
Syriac Yawsip or Yawsep Būsnāyā (?869–979), was an
East Syriac
The East Syriac Rite, or East Syrian Rite (also called the Edessan Rite, Assyrian Rite, Persian Rite, Chaldean Rite, Nestorian Rite, Babylonian Rite or Syro-Oriental Rite), is an Eastern Christian liturgical rite that employs the Divine Liturg ...
monk and mystic in
Upper Mesopotamia
Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...
. His disciple, John (Yoḥannan) bar Kaldun, wrote his biography and incorporated a chapter on his spiritual teachings. It is an important source for the Christian geography of the
Sapna valley
Sapna Valley () is a large valley in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border ...
in the tenth century and contains a wealth of detail about the lifestyle of East Syriac monks of the period.
Joseph was active in the first half of the tenth century. A native of Beth ʿEdraye, near
Mosul
Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...
, he entered the
monastery of Rabban Hormizd and later moved to that of
Abraham of Beth Ṣayyare in the
ʿAmadiyya district. He founded his own monastery in the village of
Inishk, which later had to be moved to the top of a hill to protect it from
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish language
** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji)
**Central Kurdish (Sorani)
**Southern Kurdish
** Laki Kurdish
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern ...
raids.
Joseph became a critic of the bookish learning traditions of the East Syriac church. He was a skilled copyist of Scripture but in his old age he gave up all writing. John took care of his correspondence (in
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
). Joseph focused on memorizing. According to John, he memorized all of both the
Old and
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
s and the thirty-three volumes of
Theodore of Mopsuestia
Theodore of Mopsuestia (Greek: Θεοδώρος, c. 350 – 428) was a Christian theologian, and Bishop of Mopsuestia (as Theodore II) from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate. ...
. He claimed to be able to recite a text after reading it five times. Joseph was reputedly 110 years old when he died on 4 September 979, which would put his birth in 869.
Joseph's
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
is celebrated on the sixth Friday of
liturgical summer (thirteenth after
Pentecost
Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...
) in the East Syriac calendar. His biography is known from a copy made at the
monastery of Mar Eliya in 1055, although copies were also known among the
Saint Thomas Christians
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, ''Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani'', ''Malankara Nasrani'', or ''Nasrani Mappila'', are an Ethnoreligious group, ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Ker ...
of India in the 16th century. In the West it was known only from its mention in the catalogue of
Abdisho of Nisibis, but in the 19th century it was translated into French by
Jean-Baptiste Chabot from a copy of the Mar Eliya manuscript made by
Samuel Giamil Samuel Giamil (1847–1917) () was an Assyrian scholar, polyglot and a Chaldean Catholic monk.
He was the superior of the Monastery of ''Notre Dame des Semences'' near Alqosh from 1890 to 1917 and wrote numerous scholarly works in Arabic, Latin, ...
.
[Chabot 1897, pp. 357–358.]
Hagiography
*
Jean-Baptiste Chabot (ed.), "Vie du moine Rabban Youssef Bousnaya", ''Revue de l'Orient chrétien'' 2 (1897)
357–405 3 (1898)
77–121168–190292–327
an
458–480
4 (1899)
380–415
and 5 (1900)
118–143
an
182–200
Notes
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph Busnaya
869 births
979 deaths
10th-century Christian monks
10th-century Christian mystics
Church of the East Christians from the Abbasid Caliphate
Syrian Christian monks
Syrian Christian mystics
Longevity claims