Sergius of Samarkand, also known as Mār Sargīs or Mar Sergius, was an ascetic and missionary of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( ) or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church, the Chaldean Church or the Nestorian Church, is one of three major branches o ...

in which he is considered a major saint. His name is associated with numerous locations in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. Not much is known about his life except that he had retreated to the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

and, according to

Mari ibn Suleiman Mari ibn Suleiman or Sulaiman () was a 12th-century Nestorian Christian author writing in Arabic. Nothing is known of his life. He is the author of a theological and historiographical work known as the Book of the Tower (''Kitāb al-Majdal''). The ...

's ''Book of the Tower'' and a letter written in about 1009 by Abdishō, the Metropolitan of Merv, to Catholicos-Patriarch

John V John V may refer to: * Patriarch John V of Alexandria or John the Merciful (died by 620), Patriarch of Alexandria from 606 to 616 * John V of Constantinople, Patriarch from 669 to 675 * Pope John V (685–686), Pope from 685 to his death in 686 ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, Mar Sergius is responsible for the conversion of the

Keraites The Keraites (also ''Kerait, Kereit, Khereid'', Kazakh: керейт; Kyrgyz: керей; Mongolian: Хэрэйд; Nogai: Кереит; Uzbek: ''Kerait''; Chinese: 克烈) were one of the five dominant Turco-Mongol tribal confederations ...

Conversion legend

The Keraites' conversion to East Syriac Christianity around the year 1007 AD was recorded in the 12th-century ''Book of the Tower'' by

, and the 13th-century by

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus (, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian (region ...

: wrote in ''Christians in Asia before 1500'': "The name of the Christian saint he

he king He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

met is given as Mar Sergius, who, as we know, hailed from

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

and who became a very popular saint in Central and East Asia, various monasteries being dedicated to him."

Conversion legend

See also

References

Further reading