Episcopate assigned to him by both mediæval historians[1] is a sign of confusion only, and most of his predecessors are as apocryphal as the copes with which Mari Ibn Sulieman carefully endues each one. Moreover such of them as had some real existence were not, as we shall see, Catholici (i.e. archbishops) of Seleucia. Still, tradition in the East has a way of justifying itself, at least as regards the main facts which it asserts, as evidence accumulates; and a work has recently come to light that goes far to combler la lacune between Mari and Papa, which M. Labourt laments. This is the History of the Bishops of Adiabenë (Khay-dab), a work composed in the sixth century by one Mshikha-Zca (Christ conquers), a scholar of the great college of Nisibis and a native of the province whose history he writes. The author frankly declares himself to be only a compiler, and refers to earlier and now lost authorities.[2]
Mshikha-Zca plainly acknowledges Adai as the apostle of Adiabene and Assyria, and states that he ordained his disciple, Pqida, as first bishop of that district, in the year a.d. 104.[3] Pqida was by birth the slave of a Magian, and was of that faith. He had apparently gained his personal freedom; and he had been converted by the sight of a miracle wrought by Mar Adai, who was then travelling and teaching in the land. He had to undergo some persecution from the family (not from his
- ↑ B.-H., a.d. 266–330. Mari Ibn Sulieman (Liber Turris), a.d. 247–326 (!). Papa's latter-day successors are consecrated in their "teens," but even these do not attain to such magnificently lengthy tenures.
- ↑ Sources Syriaques, vol. i., Msiha-Zkha, texte de traduction. A. Mingana, Mosul, Life of Pqida.
- ↑ Samson, successor of Pqida, died "seven years after the Victory of Trajan," i.e. a.d. 123. This was nine years after the death of Pqida, whose episcopate lasted ten years. Pqida was therefore consecrated a.d. 104.
