Isaac the Syrian (B)

Isaac the Syrian (B), generally with the surname of Ninivita, an ecclesiastical writer of the 6th century, became bishop of Nineveh, but afterwards resigned his office to enter a convent, of which he was subsequently chosen abbot. He died towards the close of the 6th, century. He is generally, and, as it seems, justly considered as the author of the treatise De Contemptu Mundi, de' Operatione coporali et sui Abjectione Liber, which may be found in the Orthodoxographi (second edition, Basle, 1569), Bibliotheca Patrum (of Cologne, vol. 6), Bibliotheca Patrum (of Paris, vol. 5), Bibliotheca novissima (of Lyons, vol. 11), and in Galland, Bibliotheca Patrum (vol. 12). All these collections contain a Greek text with a Latin translation, yet the former appears itself to be a translation from the Syriac. There are twenty-seven ascetic sermons of his in Greek (MSS in the Vienna Library) and some homilies (MSS in the Bodleian Library). See Cave, Hist. Liter.; Fabricius, Bibl. Graeca, 11:215; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé 26:4; Jicher, Gelehrt. Lex. 2, 1991.