Hierarch
Hierarch Marutha of Martyropolis
IV–V вв. — † ок. 422
Also known as: Маруфа Тигритский
Hierarch Marutha of Martyropolis — a Syriac bishop-diplomat between Byzantium and Persia, who gathered the relics of Persian martyrs and founded the city of Martyropolis ("City of Martyrs") around them.
Hierarch Marutha was a Syriac-speaking bishop of the city of Maiferqat (Martyropolis) in Mesopotamia, on the border of the Byzantine and Persian empires. He became a prominent diplomat between the two powers: in 403–404 he traveled to Constantinople to petition Emperor Arcadius on behalf of persecuted Persian Christians, and was twice sent by Emperor Theodosius II to the Persian shah Yazdegerd I to negotiate peace.
At the Persian court he won great favor — tradition holds he healed the shah of chronic headaches. Rather than material reward, he requested and obtained the bodies/relics of Christian martyrs killed during Shapur II's persecutions of Persian Christians. He gathered and recorded their Lives into a single martyrology and translated their relics to his episcopal seat at Maiferqat, which was thereafter renamed Martyropolis ("City of Martyrs").
The bishop also participated in the church councils of his time. His own relics were later translated to a Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Egyptian desert.
His feast is kept on February 16/March 1.