290. Metropolitan Zaytun of Inhil (d. 1855)

Posted by on Apr 13, 2008 in Library, Scholars and Writers | Comments Off on 290. Metropolitan Zaytun of Inhil (d. 1855)

Metropolitan Zaytun of Inhil
(d. 1855)

Metropolitan Zaytun was born at the village Inhil in Tur Abdin. He studied under teachers of his time, particularly the Metropolitan Abd al-Nur of Arbo. He also acquired a fair knowledge of literature, church rituals and calligraphy. He became a monk and was ordained a priest at the Qartamin Monastery. In 1848 he was ordained a metropolitan under the name Philoxenus and in 1851 he headed the diocese of Midyat. He died, a middle-aged man, in April 1855. He was a pious and venerable person. While still a monk, he composed an excellent ode comprising one hundred twenty-two lines in the dodecasyllabic meter praising the virtues of Saint Gabriel of Qartamin.660 While in Paris, I read an ode on Saint Philoxenus of Mabug. Although some of its lines are poor, I think it is the composition of our Metropolitan Zaytun.661