St. Mushe (Moses) Bar Kifo (d. 903)

He is one of our authoritative scholars an established philosopher and theologian, a great Malphono (Doctor) of the Church and unique in his age for his copious and interesting works, whose study became imperative for the clergy.

Moses Bar Simon, better known as Mushe Bar Kifo, was born at the town of Kuhayl or Mashhad Kuhayl around 813, according to an old account. He entered the Monastery of Mar Sergius in the Barren Mountain between Sinjar and Balad and studied the Holy Bible and the sciences of philosophy and theology and Syriac under its abbot, Kyriakos. Soon he was so well-known for his diligence and energetic pursuit of knowledge, that his fame raised him about to the level of the very learned Jacob of Edessa. He was ordained a bishop of Beth Romon, Beth Kiyona in 863, and for some time, of Mosul, too. Also for ten years he was a predute of the See of Takrit after the death of the Mapheryono (Catholicos) Melchizedek and Sergi us. He died on the twelfth of February, 903, at about ninety years of age, and was commemorated by the Church.

His works which he compiled at the request of Ignatius, bishop of Qronta, and of his teacher and abbot of his monastery, Kyriakos, and his disciples Habib and Rabban Paul. His works can be found written in: (History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem I Barsoum, Presseggiata Press, p 131/2)