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Isaac of Nineveh

Eastern Orthodox saint · Academics · Lived 640 to 700 · aged 60

Isaac of Nineveh is read about 199 times a day, in 35 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 September 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.

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A 7th-century bishop who left his post after five months and disappeared into the mountains to write. His texts on asceticism and mercy crossed every Christian schism that followed - Church of the East, Catholic, Orthodox - and still circulate under half a dozen names.

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Photos 8

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In their own words 10

,
Isaac of Nineveh
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. What is a charitable heart? It is a heart which is burning with love for the whole creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts … for all creatures.

    Mystic Treatises, cited in Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1976), p. 111; also cited and discussed in A. M., Own words

  2. In the measure that love for the flesh prevails in you

    The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, second edition (2011), published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, Own words

  3. There is nothing so capable of banishing the inveterate habits of licentiousness from our soul

    * Homily 1, p. 115, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this person

Isaac was born around 613 and became a bishop in the Church of the East sometime in the 7th century, appointed to Nineveh. He held the office for roughly five months before resigning and retreating into solitude. There, he turned to writing - producing works on Christian asceticism that would outlive the ecclesiastical borders of his time. His texts on spiritual practice and divine mercy were copied and translated across traditions that rarely agreed on anything else. He's venerated as a saint across the Church of the East, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox churches. His feast day lands on January 28 in most traditions, shared with the 4th-century hymnographer Ephrem the Syrian; the Syriac Orthodox Church marks it separately on May 14.

Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 640 to 700 · aged 60

Academics born in the 640s 2

Hasan al-Basri55.7Fazang47.3

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