Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/67

 ABU L F AR AGIU S. 5 i ABUL FARAGIUS (GREGORY) [A], Ton to Aaron a phyfician, born in 1226, in the c iy of Mahtia, ii'-.ir the iburce of the Euphrates in^Armenia. He followed the [>KJ- feffion of his father, anJ pradned with great lucccfs ; num- bers of people coming from the molt remote parts to afk his advice. However, he would hardly have been known at this time, had his knowledge been confined to phyfic j but he ap- plied himfelf to the ftuJy of the Greek, Syii.c, and Arabic languages, as well as philofophy and divinity; and he wn>- : a hiftory, which does honour to his memory. It is written in Arabic, and divided into dynafties. It confiits of tea parts, being an epitome of univerfal hiftory from the creation of the w<yU to his own time. Dr. Pocock published it, with a Latin tfanflation in 1663; and added, by way of fupple- ment, a fhort continuation relating to the Hiilory of the Eaftern Princes. Abul Faragius was ordained bifhop of Guba at twenty years of age, by Ignatius, the patriarch of the Jacobites. Jn See his Sy- 1247, he was promoted to the fee of Lacabena, and fome n years after to that of Aleppo. About the year 1266, he was elected primate of the Jacobites in the Eaft [B]. As Abul AfTem. Bib. Faragius lived in the thirteenth century, an age famous for c miracles, it would feem ftrange if fome had not been wrought p.'zic.' by him, or in his behalf: he himfelf mentions two. One happened in Eafter holidays, when he was confecrating the chrifm or holy ointment; which, though before confecration it did not fill the veflel in which it was contained, yet in- In (err- . creafed fo much after, that it would have run over, had they c not immediately poured it into another [c]. The other hap- pened in 1285. The church of St. Barnagore having been deftroyed by fome robbers, Abul Faragius built a new one, with a monaftery, in a more fecure place, and Dedicated it to the fame faint; and, as he defired the relics of the faint fhould be kept in the new church, he fent fome perfons to dig them out of the ruins of the old one : but they not finding the re- A] Pocock mentions two paffages, manus Biblioth. Orient, torn. IT. p, wherein our author is called Mar Gre- 344, gorius, and another where he has the [c] AfTemanus endeavours to ac name of Mor Gregorius. Others have count for this miracle in a natural wny : called him Mark Gregory. Mr. Bayie " The temole being litile, fays he, and fays, tlity have miitaken Mar, a full of people, this, with 'her wax tspers title of honour anfwering to Sir, for anH burning of incenfe, might hent 'he Mark. air to fuch a degree as to dilute and rari/'y [B] The AfTyrians called ChalJea the balfam, that it might run over the and Affytia the Eaft, and Syria veflel without any mira.lc. " Afemsn. and Mcfopotamia the Weft. Aile- Eibliotb. p. ajo. . lies,