Severus the Great of Antioch (; ), also known as Severus of Gaza or the Crown of Syrians (; ), was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, from 512 until his death in 538. He is venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Church, and his feast day is 8 February.
Biography
Early life and education
Severus was born in the city of Sozopolis in Pisidia in c. 459, or c. 465, into an affluent Christian family, however, later Miaphysite sources would assert that his parents were pagan. His father was a senator in the city, and his paternal grandfather, also named Severus, was the Bishop of Sozopolis and had attended the Council of Ephesus in 431. According to Severus' hagiography, he was named after his paternal grandfather as he had received a vision in which he was told, "the child who is for your son will strengthen Orthodoxy, and his name will be after your name".
After his father's death, in 485, Severus travelled to Alexandria in Egypt to study grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, in both Greek and Latin. At Alexandria, he met Zacharias of Mytilene, a fellow student and friend, who persuaded him to read the works of Gregory of Nazianzus, and Basil of Caesarea, in particular his correspondence with Libanius. According to Zacharias, whilst students at Alexandria, he and Severus discovered and destroyed a hoard of pagan idols at the neighbouring city of Menouthis.
In the autumn of 486, Severus travelled to Berytus in Phoenicia and studied law and philosophy at the law school, where he was later joined by Zacharias in 487. At Berytus, Severus and Zacharias led the expulsion of necromancers and enchanters from the city, and Severus began to dedicate his free time to studying the works of the Fathers of the Church. At this time, he joined a group of students led by a certain Evagrius who prayed together at the Church of the Resurrection every evening. Severus was convinced to be baptised, as he had not yet undergone baptism due to Pisidian custom in which men could not be baptised until they had grown a beard. In 488, he was baptised at the Church of Saint Leontius at Tripolis with Evagrius as his sponsor.
Monkhood
Severus subsequently adopted an ascetic life whereby he rejected bathing and adopted fasting. He initially intended to return to Pisidia and practise law, however, after a pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Leontius in Tripolis, the head of John the Baptist at Emesa, and Jerusalem, he resolved to join Evagrius and become a monk. Severus entered the monastery of Peter the Iberian near Maiuma in Palestine, a prominent centre of non-Chalcedonianism, and remained there for several years. He later joined a monastic brotherhood in the desert near Eleutheropolis under the archimandrite Mamas. Severus practised asceticism in the desert until c. 500, at which time he became ill and was convinced to recover at the Monastery of Saint Romanus in Maiuma, where he was ordained a priest by Epiphanius, Bishop of Magydus. At Maiuma, Severus received his inheritance from his parents; he shared the property with his brothers, donated most of his share to the poor, and constructed a monastery.
On a walk outside the city, Severus came upon a hermit who left his cave to call out, "welcome to you Severus, teacher of Orthodoxy, and Patriarch of Antioch", despite never meeting Severus, the hermit thus prophesied Severus' ascension to the patriarchal throne. He remained at his monastery until 507/508, at which time Nephalius, a Chalcedonian monk, arrived at Maiuma and preached against Severus and other non-Chalcedonians. In 508, Nephalius wrote an apologia of the Council of Chalcedon, to which Severus replied in his two Orationes ad Nephalium. In the same year, Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem commissioned Nephalius to expel non-Chalcedonian monks from their monasteries in Palestine, and Severus was sent to Constantinople to complain to Emperor Anastasius.