Addai

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Addai
birth_date=first century AD
death_date=early 2nd century AD
feast_day=August 5
venerated_in=Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church


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issues=:"For the American football player, see Joseph Addai".

Among the Eastern Orthodox faithful, Saint Addai was a disciple of Christ [cite book |title=Chaldean-Americans: Changing Conceptions of Ethnic Identity |last=Sengstock |first=Mary C. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1982 |publisher=Center for Migration Studies |location= |isbn=0913256420, 9780913256428 |pages= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ERYUAAAAYAAJ ] sent by St. Thomas the Apostle to Edessa in order to heal King Abgar V of Osroene, who had fallen ill. St. Addai stayed to evangelize, and converted cite book |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |last=Herbermann |first=Charles George |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=1913 |publisher=Encyclopedia Press |location= |isbn= |pages=282] Abgar—or Agbar, or in one Latin version "Acbar" — and his people including Saint Aggai and Saint Mari. He is known as one of the great apostles to Syria and Persia. He is considered to have been one of the early Catholicoses of the East, following Saint Thomas the Apostle. He and Saint Mari are credited with the Divine Liturgy of Addai and Mari. St. Addai is also known as Addeus— or Thaddeus which is a doublet for St. Jude the Apostle.

The story of St. Addai, the apostle of Edessa, accounts for the growing Christian communities in northern Mesopotamia and in Syria east of Antioch. The identity of the specific Agbar/Abgar is open to interpretation: see Abgar. The fully developed legend of Addai is embodied in the Syriac document, "Doctrine of Addai," which recounts the role of Addai and makes him one of the 72 Apostles sent out to spread the Christian faith. [Luke 10:1 – 20]

The legendary tale of how King Abgarus V of Edessa and Jesus had corresponded was first recounted in the 4th century by the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea [Eusebius, "Church History", 1.13 and 3.1] and it was retold in elaborated form by Ephrem the Syrian. In the origin of the legend, Eusebius had been shown documents purporting to contain the official correspondence that passed between Abgar and Jesus, and he was well enough convinced by their authenticity to quote them extensively in his ecclesiastical history. By the time the legend had returned to Syria, the purported site of the miraculous image, it had been embroidered into a tissue of miraculous happenings: [Walter Bauer, "Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity", 1934, (in English 1971) ( [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Bauer/bauer01.htm#FN1 On-line text] )] the "Doctrine of Addai" is full of miracles, and antisemitism in the garbled story of "Protonike" [The historicized but non-historical Protonice, "first victory [of Christianity] " only appears in this context; her actions make her a prefiguration of Helena, mother of Constantine.] consort of Claudius, searching for the Cross, and Golgotha and the Holy Sepuchre, all of them in possession of the Jews.

St. Addai appears in unorthodox material as well, in two previously unknown Apocalypses attributed to James the Just found at Nag Hammadi in 1945. [Robert Eisenman, "James the Brother of Jesus : The key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls," 1997 (Viking Penguin). Especially the section "Thaddeus, Judas Thomas and the conversion of the Osrhoeans", pp 189ff.]

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintaan.htm Catholic Forum: "Saint Addai"]
* [http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0805.htm#mari Saints Index: "Sts. Addai & Mari"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01042c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "The Legend of Abgar"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01136d.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "The Liturgy of Sts. Addeus and Maris"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05088a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "Doctrine of St. Addai"]
* [http://www.apostle1.com/doctrine-addai-syriac-orthodox1.htm Syriac Orthodox: "Doctrine of St. Addai"] - online text in English