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I agree with John Mathew (in other article …


Comment posted Focus II- History, Munnu Noyambu and Kappalottam – Marth Mariam Church, Kuravilangad by Joseph George.

I agree with John Mathew (in other article responses) that this Rogation of Nenevites of Kuravilangadu originated NOT in India but in the Church of the East in Persia!

I came across the following information:

The year – roughly between AD 564 and 574.

The Persian Sassanid Shah-in-Shah (Emperor) – Chosroes (Cyrus) I

The Roman Emperor – Justin II

The Catholicos Patriarch of CoE – Joseph (followed by) Ezekiel.

“The latter part of the patriarchate of Joseph, and the first of that of Ezekiel, saw a terrible outbreak of plague in all the East-a return of the same scourge as that which had devastated both the Roman and Persian Empires in 541, and of which Procopius has left us a description. Syriac writers call the sickness the “Shar’uth,”; but it was probably what we know as oriental plague, and its destructiveness was as awful as usual. Whole households died; and none dare enter the empty houses to gather the gold that lay there ownerless. The King, by payment of a huge reward, got together a company of grave-diggers, who collected the corpses in the capital, interred them, and claimed their fee. It was paid them; but all were found dead a few hours later, the pile of gold lying undivided by their side.

“Finally, two of the metropolitans-those of Karka and Arbela-instituted solemn services of intercession, litanies and Rogation processions; calling on all men to show penitence under the shadow of God’s judgments, as the men of Nineveh had done of old, in order that they too might be spared. The patriarch scoffed; and called the leaders of the processions “blind leaders of the blind.–a faithlessness punished by
the failure of his own sight. The plague abated, and ever since the Church of Assyria has perpetuated the observance. The third week before “the Great Fast” still sees the celebration of the “Bautha of the Ninevites,” the “Rogation days” of this Church. (A note)” (page – 67)

“(A note):- Modern Assyrians trace back this observance to the fast of the Ninevites in the days of Jonah. Without accepting that identification, one may note that the Bautha fast and subsequent feast are observed not only by the Assyrians of modern days, but by the Yezidis (Devil-worshippers) also. This fact makes it appear probable that the fast of the sixth century has been “grafted on to” another and much older observance.” (page – 116)

An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church (or the Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire 100-640 AD) – by W A Wigram MA,DD, 1909.
************

Wigram’s “Note” says that the present rogation must be a modification of an ancient fast and he seems to allude to the OT fast of the Ninevites without mentioning it.

Now the question: why this custom, obviously a CoE legacy, is limited only to Kuravilangadu church?

Kuravilangadu parish is famous for the Archdeacons. Any connection?

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