Ebed-jesu

Ebed-Jesu a Chaldaean patriarch and Syrian writer, lived about the middle of the 16th century. He received his education at Gozarta, and was afterwards bishop of that place. In 1554 he was elected as the successor of Sulaka, first patriarch of the Nestorians, and confirmed by the Pope in 1562. Ebed-Jesu was a man of great erudition; he was familiar with the writings of all the Greek and Latin fathers, and was also master of the Arabic, Chaldee, and the Syriac. Many of the Nestorians were converted by him, and the numbers of the Chaldees were augmented under his administration. He died a few Years after his visit to Rome (1562), in a monastery at the village of Seert in Mesopotamia. We have from him a poem in three parts: Sur le voyage a Rome, le retour et la mort de Sulaka; Poeme a la louange de Pie IV; a Confession of Faith, read at the 22d session of the Council of Trent. — Assemani, Bibi. Orient. 1:538; 3, page 3, 325; Hoefer, Nouv. Biographie Generale, 15:595. (J.H.W.)