Isaac the Syrian

Isaac of Nineveh was a seventh-century East Syriac bishop, ascetic, and theologian born in the region of Beth Qatraye on the eastern Arabian coast. Ordained bishop of Nineveh around 676 by Catholicos Gewargis I — though some sources place the ordination as late as ca. 680 — he resigned within a matter of months and withdrew to solitary monastic contemplation. He retired first to Mount Matuot (also spelled Mattut), a hermitage in the region of Beth Huzaye (Khuzestan), and then to the monastery of Rabban Shabur in the mountains of Khuzestan, where he spent the rest of his life, reportedly losing his sight from continuous reading and writing, and where he died and was buried. His homilies on prayer, stillness, inner watchfulness, and divine mercy became among the most treasured texts in Eastern Christian monasticism and have been read in Orthodox monasteries continuously since they were translated into Greek in the ninth century. Though he belonged to the Church of the East, his writings transcend confessional boundaries and have been cherished by Orthodox, Catholic, and Syriac Christian communities alike.