EDESSA, a city of Mesopotamia, built about four hundred years before Jesus Hieron. in Chronico.Christ, by the great Seleucus King of Syria, in that part of Mesopotamia, called Osrhoëne, and remarkable in Church History for the Letter which Jesus Christ wrote to King Abgarus or Agabarus, or Abagarus, who reigned at Edessa. Count Darius in Apud Aug. Ep. 230. Nov. Edit. Evagr. l. 4. c. 27. Hist. Eccles.St. Austin says, our Saviour promised Abgarus, that the city of Edessa should be impregnable; and Evagrius remarks, that altho’ this was not in our Lord’s Letter, it was nevertheless the common belief of the Faithful; which was much confirmed, when Cosrhoes King of Persia, having sat down before it, was forced to raise the siege1. St. Thaddæus, one of the Seventy Disciples, and different from the Apostle of the same name, was sent by St. Thomas to instruct the people of Edessa; he converted them to Christianity, together with Abgarus their King, who upon the reputation only of Jesus Christ’s doctrine and miracles, had begun already to believe in him.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages
Footnotes
-
Translators’ note. Edessa was situated upon the river Scyrtus, which overflowing its banks, did great mischief to the city, and drowned many of the inhabitants, in the reign of the Emperor Justinus, who repaired the town, and called it Justinopolis. It goes at present by the name of Ourfa. ↩