On the thirteenth of January we celebrate a great Syrian father, Mâr Ya‘qûb [also Jacob or James], Bishop of Nisibis. He is most renowned in the Orthodox Church as the spiritual father of Mâr ’Afrâm [Saint Ephrem] the Syrian. However, he was also a participant, at the invitation of Emperor Saint Constantine, of the First Œcumenical Council of Nicæa, and is one of the holy signatories of the Council.
Mâr Ya‘qûb was born in Nisibis in the middle of the third century. His father was a Christian whose name was Jafâl. Two narratives are given with regard to his origin. The earlier one is that Jafâl belonged to the same tribe as Holy Apostle James the brother of the Lord; this is the narrative credited by the hagiographer Alban Butler, who additionally describes him as a ‘Syrian’ by ethnicity. The Armenians hold that Jafâl was an Iranian prince. Mâr Ya‘qûb was apparently close friends in his youth with Saint Gregory Photistes, with whom he later corresponded in letters. When he was still a young man, Ya‘qûb took fire for the faith and went into the mountains in what is now northern Iraq, to live as a hermit. He wore only the rough clothing of goat hair, fed himself on herbs and fruits only, and lived under the open sky without the benefit of a roof over his head or a fire for warmth.
The fame of his ascetical exploits grew, and the Bishop of Arbîl visited him in his isolation. He performed a number of ascetic feats and acts of devotion to God. At one time during his isolation he climbed al-Ghûdiyya seeking a relic from the ark of Noah; as he slept on the mountain an angel appeared to him and led him to a splinter of the ark. In the place where he slept a holy spring appeared. He took the splinter with him and entrusted it to another hermit, Marûkah.
He happened as he was wandering, upon a spring next to which a group of lewd women were boasting loudly of their exploits – and as he passed by they jeered at him. They had let their hair down to take a bath in the spring. Ya‘qûb whispered a prayer to God, and at once the spring dried up, and the hair of the women turned white. The women turned to Mâr Ya‘qûb, apologised to him and repented. Ya‘qûb once again prayed to God, and the waters of the spring returned – however, the hair of the women remained white. At another time, some greedy men tried to scam some money off of the holy man. One of them covered himself in a shroud like a corpse, and lay down on the side of the road. The others went up to Mâr Ya‘qûb and asked him for money to bury the ‘dead’ man. When they returned to the roadside, however, they found the man under the shroud had truly died. Stricken, the other men knelt by Ya‘qûb and confessed their sin to him. When Ya‘qûb prayed to God, the man under the shroud was raised again to life.
Mâr Ya‘qûb gave strength to the Christians on both sides of the divide between the two powerful empires of his day. He boldly and courageously preached against the wicked emperor Maximian in Rome, and publicly confessed the true Faith during the persecutions wrought by the same. And he also travelled among, and comforted, the Christians of Persia, exhorting them to steadfastness under the persecutions of Šâpur II. It was sometime shortly after or concurrently with this that he was consecrated as bishop in Nisibis.
Though he once again took up residence in the city of his birth, and left the desert to serve among the people of the city, in no way did he forsake his desert way of life. He dressed as he always had, ate as he always had, and even slept outside the bishop’s residence. In addition to this, as bishop he revealed himself to be an attentive and caring archpastor, and also a fierce and formidable advocate for the poor and oppressed. Whatever wealth he had and whatever gifts he was given found their way out of his hands and into those of the poor. He visited the sick and imprisoned, and he had a special care for widows and orphans, whom Christ commended to the care of His people.
At the same time, though, he had indeed been brought up gentle, and had been given the very best of educations by his father Jafâl. In his position as bishop, he sponsored and helped to build a public school in Nisibis, which took young boys in free of charge – as well as blessing the foundation of a new church there, which was completed in 320. He himself became a malfâna – a teacher, or professor – in this school, and would later entrust his pupils to his spiritual son Mâr ’Afrâm in the same rôle. Mâr Ya‘qûb’s instruction of his pupils was as much by example as it was by didacticism and lecture.
Mâr Ya‘qûb was also a formidable and stalwart champion of Orthodoxy against the various heresies – chief among which in his own time was Arianism. He was present at the Council of Nicæa in 325, as mentioned above, where he argued tenaciously and vociferously for the full divinity of Jesus Christ over-against the hierarchical hæresy of Arius. Mâr Ya‘qûb is one of the sainted signatories of the Council and is commemorated together with the other Nicene Fathers on the twenty-ninth of May.
He is also famous for working a great wonder in Nisibis on the eve of an invasion by the Persians under Šâpur II in 338, shortly before his blessed repose. Though he could hardly be considered a partizan of the Roman government, Mâr Ya‘qûb nonetheless had to think of the protection of the people in the city. Mâr Ya‘qûb ascended the wall, attended by his deacon ’Afrâm, and prayed to God. He prayed for the destruction of no man, but only that Nisibis might be delivered in peace from the Persian siege. At once there arose a plague of gnats and flies among the Persian ranks, which not only greatly grieved the soldiery but particularly attacked their cavalry and pestered the horses. Šâpur was forced to destroy his siege engines, abandon the siege of Nisibis and depart – at that time – in peace. Mâr Ya‘qûb reposed peacefully in the Lord later that year, and is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on the thirteenth of January and on the thirty-first of October. Holy father Ya‘qûb, blessed ascetic and teacher, friend to the poor, pray unto Christ our God that we unworthy sinners may be saved!
By simple words he gave milk to his infants,
The Church in Nisibis was as a child with him.
As with a child, he loved her and chastened her.
The womb of him who gave birth to the flock bore her infancy.
The first priest gave milk to her infancy.
The wealthy father laid up treasures for her childhood.- Mâr ’Afrâm, Hymns on Nisibis
Church of Mâr Ya‘qûb, Nusaybin
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