Iskandar Bcheiry: The ascetical life of Severus of Antioch and the image of Queen Theodora by Patriarch Cyriacus of Tikrit 817

During the spring of 2014, I had the opportunity to examine a particular Syriac manuscript (A. 12008), at the Oriental Museum, in Chicago, which had not been fully described or published. Among the unpublished subjects that this manuscript contains, is a historical biography in a form of a discourse regarding the life of Severus, composed by the Syriac orthodox patriarch Cyriacus of Tikrit who died in 817. The life of Severus by Patriarch Cyriacus is an important historical source that has been often cited; however, the text has never been published or translated. In this presentation, I would like to shed light on “The ascetical life of Severus of Antioch and the holy image of Queen Theodora through Severus’s biography written by Patriarch Kyriacos of Tikrit 817. In this hagiographical biography there are special characteristics and images of Severus and Queen Theodora as a holy and ascetical people that are not found in other sources.