Church Syriac Orthodox Church Predecessor Julian II See Antioch Successor Athanasius III | Installed 709 Name Elias of Term ended 723 | |
Elias I of Antioch (Syriac:Mor Elijah) was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 709 until his death in 723.
Biography
Elias was born in 641 into a Greek Orthodox family, but later converted to miaphysitism, the doctrine of the Syriac Orthodox Church, after reading the works of Severus of Antioch. He became a monk at the Monastery of Gubba Barraya, near Edessa, and was ordained as Bishop of Apamea in 691. Elias was consecrated as patriarch in 709 following the death of Julian III, and presented himself to Caliph Al-Walid I in the same year. The patriarch financed and consecrated a new church in the city of Antioch in 721, and another church in Sarmada in 722. Elias led the Syriac Orthodox Church as patriarch prior to his death in 723.