Athanasius II Baldoyo

Athanasius II Baldoyo was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 683 until his death in 686.

Biography

Athanasius was born in 634 in the city of Balad on the banks of the river Tigris. He studied sciences, Syriac and Greek under Severus Sebokht at the Monastery of Qinnasrin with Jacob of Edessa. In 645, he became a monk at the Monastery of Beth Malke, near Antioch, where he studied philosophy and translated Porphyry of Tyre's Isagoge into Syriac from Greek. Athanasius went on to be ordained as a priest and resided in Nisibin.

In 669, Athanasius translated a few letters by Severus of Antioch at the request of the metropolitan bishops of Aleppo and Edessa, Matta and Daniel, respectively. He also translated Severus' Second discourse against Nephalius, nine homilies of Basil of Caesarea's Hexaemeron and several homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus .

Athanasius was consecrated as patriarch in 683, during the Second Islamic Civil War, whilst Antioch was ruled by the House of Marwan, a branch of the Umayyads. The following year he published a letter denouncing Christians who participated in Muslim festivals, ate halal food and Christian women who had intimate relations with Muslims.