Saint Christophoros of Antioch
القدّيس خريسطوفورس الأنطاكي
Today, the twenty-first of May, is not only the feast-day of Saint Helen of Constantinople, but also that of a great Patriarch of Antioch, Christophoros, who lived and reposed in the tenth century. This great and holy hierarch was Iraqi-born, in the city of Baghdad. His Orthodox Christian parents named him ‘Îsâ (the Arabic version of ‘Joshua’ or ‘Jesus’), and gave him a fine education in the liberal arts and in classical Arabic. So skilled was he in this literary language of the Qur’ân, excelling in his calligraphy and in his oratory skill, that he became a prime candidate for advancement in the secretarial profession employed by the Islâmic rulers of the time. The young ‘Îsâ sought advancement in the court of Sayf ad-Dawlah, the Emir of Aleppo, who was known to be a generous and tasteful patron of literature: indeed, the Sayf ad-Dawlah was well known for his patronage of the great Shî‘a poet al-Mutanabbî. Young ‘Îsâ impressed the Sayf enough, it seems, that he was quickly promoted, and made secretary to one of the Sayf’s retainers, the Emir of Shayzar (in the modern-day Hama Governorate).
The canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Antioch had been, for a long time, politically divided between lands owing allegiance to Constantinople and lands owing allegiance to Ctesiphon. This is attested as far back as the fourth century in the life of Saint ’Afrâm. As such, the Antiochian Church often had to play a delicate balancing act between the government of Byzantium, on the one hand, and those of Sâsânian Persia and the successive Islâmic Caliphates on the other. Since the conquest of Persian Ctesiphon by the Muslims, the Orthodox hierarchs in charge of the Iranian and Central Asian ‘East’ of the Antiochian Patriarchate – known as the Catholicosate of Romagyris – had been forced to flee Ctesiphon for the town of aš-Šâš [Ar. الشاش, Ch. Zheshi 赭时], which is now Toshkent [Тошкент] in Uzbekistan.
The Orthodox community was again further divided between a large population of Orthodox Romans residing in Arabic-speaking Baghdad, and the administrative functions of that church which were all located in the Central Asian aš-Šâš. This issue came to a head in the late 950s. When the Catholicos of aš-Šâš died in 958, the representatives of the Catholicosate of Romagyris sent a delegation to Antioch to ask that a successor-bishop be consecrated. And the Baghdadis saw their chance to plead their case to the Patriarch to move the Catholicosate from aš-Šâš to Baghdad, the better to serve its parishioners. For this task, the Baghdadis nominated the well-spoken and politically-connected ‘Îsâ.
‘Îsâ arrived in Antioch in 959, only to find that the Patriarch of Antioch, Agapios I, had reposed in the Lord. There were now two successions that needed to be settled. According to the ancient traditions of the Antiochian Church, the new Patriarch was to be elected by the Orthodox clergy and by the people of Antioch. Several names were put forward; one of them was the name of the Baghdadi ‘Îsâ himself. Under examination, the people of Antioch found ‘Îsâ to be not only well-educated, but also wise beyond his years, kind, charitable and steadfast in the defence of Orthodox doctrine. They decided to make him their new Patriarch, and applied to the Sayf ad-Dawlah to approve his appointment. Sayf al-Dawlah already being well-disposed to ‘Îsâ, he granted the appointment without delay. ‘Îsâ, who had lived a well-off sæcular life, was quickly tonsured a monk and given the monastic name Kharîsṭûfûrus, or Christophoros, and thereafter anointed as Patriarch of Antioch.
As Patriarch, it appears that ‘Îsâ, now Christophoros, did not take his new duties lightly. Though he had lived a sæcular life in a state of relatively luxury, he took to his new monastic discipline with fervor, keeping the offices of prayer beginning before dawn and the vigils every Saturday, adopting a vegetarian diet, and never eating during the day. He also showed himself to be a fair-minded judge of disputes, including the one that occasioned his coming to Antioch. Instead of favouring his own party, the Baghdadis, in that dispute, he appointed two men to the office of Catholicos: an Aleppine named Nemaje was sent to Baghdad; and an Antiochian named Eutychios was sent to aš-Šâš.
Christophoros was a dedicated and zealous internal reformer of the Church. He reinvigorated the clergy by appointing new blood to sees and parishes long left empty. And he also stamped out the practices of simony and corruption among the clergy and hierarchs. He also managed to convince his friend and former employer Sayf ad-Dawlah to reduce the jizyah tax on Orthodox Christian households under his sway, so that poor families would not be œconomically-pressured into converting to Islâm. In addition to this, Patriarch Christophoros arranged it with Sayf ad-Dawlah so that the Patriarchate could pay the jizyah on behalf of poor families who were unable to pay. In this way, the Orthodox Christian communities under Christophoros’s patriarchal omophor were never financially pressured to convert to Islâm.
Christophoros also established two patriarchal schools in Antioch: one small seminary school for training priests who hailed from wealthy families, and another larger school for the general and priestly education of children of poor families, which was subsidised from the coffers of the smaller seminary. Christophoros took it upon himself personally to look after the poor children, and often helped them in other ways using his own personal resources and those of the Church. For these reasons Christophoros was often called the ‘new Saint Nicholas’ of the Church of Antioch.
Patriarch Christophoros was generous and kindly to the poor, but he would not allow one whit of laxity among the clergy. One of his priests – a well-connected and wealthy one who served as a physician in the household of the Sayf – committed a minor indiscretion and was told to do a small penance when he confessed it to the Patriarch. However, this priest then complained to the Sayf, asking him to command Patriarch Christophoros to grant him absolution without penance. Sayf ad-Dawlah then summoned Patriarch Christophoros before him and asked him to do this, but the Patriarch refused. Shocked at this flat refusal, Sayf ad-Dawlah asked him why he would not do what he was commanded to do. The Patriarch replied to him: ‘We obey you in all other things, and we cannot disobey you. But as regards that which our religion forbids, we are prepared to go to prison and even to be beheaded by the sword.’
Patriarch Christophoros then explained to the Sayf, that although the fault committed by this priest was a small one and could lightly be forgiven, it was not permitted for a Christian to confess his sins to and receive absolution from a Muslim, not even a mighty prince – and to do this was a grave sin which could not be lightly forgiven. At this, the thwarted Sayf became angry and told Patriarch Christophoros: ‘Take care of your head! Even if it rests in the lap of Sayf ad-Dawlah, know that I can still take it off!’ But Saint Christophoros was not moved by this threat.
By the late 960s, the political scenario in the ‘Abbâsid Caliphate somewhat resembled the Warring States period in Chinese history. A largely powerless Caliph governed in Baghdad, and his vassals swore to him nominal loyalty. But in practice they were largely left to their own devices to rule their own small states. They squabbled between themselves, and the borders of the Islâmic domain were subject to invasion from outside. The Eastern Roman Empire under Emperor Nikēphoros II Phōkas began retaking its former territories, beginning with Cilicia and Taurus in Asia Minor, and the island of Cyprus. The Roman tactics of scorched-earth warfare against the ‘Abbâsids created a crisis of œconomic refugees who poured into Syria and Palestine, so that the lands of Sayf ad-Dawlah were besieged by the innocent and the dispossessed.
In addition, the Sayf’s health was beginning to flag. Hoping to take advantage of both the Sayf’s ill health and the refugee crisis in the city, some of the Sayf’s retainers began to plot to take control of Antioch for themselves. Patriarch Christophoros, wanting nothing to do with this treachery yet jealous that the Christian community not be tainted with the suspicion of it, fled Antioch to the monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites outside Aleppo. When one of the monks criticised him for abandoning his flock, Patriarch Christophoros answered him merely: ‘You do not know what I know.’
Patriarch Christophoros was to suffer for his political loyalty to Sayf ad-Dawlah, and his desirousness that the Christians of Antioch remain free of suspicion and not be considered a fifth column for Roman interests. (The traditions of thoughtful civic patriotism and post-colonial and non-aligned Orthodoxy therefore have strong precedents in churchmen like Saint Christophoros!) The retainers who plotted against their Emir began to plot also against Patriarch Christophoros’s life. Knowing full well what awaited him, Patriarch Christophoros accepted the plotters’ invitation to a feast on the twenty-second of May, 967. The plotters were quick to make their move, and they martyred Saint Christophoros with a javelin into the chest. The body of the victorious martyr who defended the Body of Christ, was then thrown – like that of Saint Hesychios over six centuries before – into the Nahr al-‘Âsi, from which it was retrieved eight days later by Orthodox Christians. His body was interred first at a monastery outside Antioch, but it was later translated into the House of Saint Peter.
The Life of Saint Christophoros of Antioch was written down by one of his disciples, ’Ibrâhîm ibn Yûhannâ, who was also responsible for translating the writings of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus from Greek into Arabic. It is a testament both to Saint Christophoros’s scholarly acumen and to his care and commitment to teaching his pupils, that his spiritual children carried on a great number of translation projects, enriching greatly the Arabic intellectual heritage of the Church of Antioch. Holy hieromartyr Christophoros, caring teacher and friend to the poor, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion for Hieromartyr Christophoros of Antioch, Tone 4:
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee
Received the prize of the crowns of incorruption
And life from Thee, our immortal God.
For since he possessed Thy strength,
He cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.
O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.
Church of Saint Peter, Antioch
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