Mar Ahudemeh
(d. 575)
Ahudemeh is the pride of the Church of the East and one of its noblest dignitaries because of his intelligence, knowledge, piety, and support of Orthodoxy. Born at Balad,228 he was consecrated a bishop for the diocese of Baarbaya, situated between Nisibin and Sinjar. In 559, he was elevated by Mar Jacob Baradaeus to the office of the Metropolitan of the lands of the East, and set to work briskly in calling the nomad Arabs who dwelt in that region and in the abodes of Rabia to Christianity. He converted a great number of them to Christianity and built two monasteries and some churches for them. He was also honored by God by miracles to support his preaching even to the Magians. Among these Magians was a prince from the royal family, whose conversion angered the King Khosrau I Anushirwan; he imprisoned this saint, who finally received martyrdom on the Second of August, 575. His body was carried to Qarunta opposite to Takrit. He was counted as the first metropolitan of the Sea of the East after it had been usurped by the Nestorians.229
Mar Ahudemeh was a philosopher and a theologian. He wrote a book of definitions on logical matters and treatises on religious free will, on the soul, on man as the microcosm and on man as consisting of soul and body. This latter treatise was published together with his lengthy biography.230 He is also mentioned by later authorities as a writer of grammar based on the Greek method.