Qurillona Cyrillona (late 4th cent.)
Syriac poet. He is the author of six poems which are preserved in a single early ms. (Brit. Libr. Add. 14,591). The fact that one of these poems concerns an incursion of the Huns into North Mesopotamia indicates that he must have been writing ca. 396. Nothing else is known of his life (he has sometimes been identified as Absamya, reputedly a nephew of Ephrem, who is said to have written a poem on an incursion of the Huns; or as Qiyore, head of the School of Edessa: neither seems likely). The other poems concern the Footwashing, the Pascha (Holy Thursday), the Crucifixion, Wheat and its symbolism, and Zacchaeus. (In the unique ms. only that on the Crucifixion and the incursion of the Huns are specifically attributed to Qurillona.)
Sources
- G. Bickell, ‘Die Gedichte des Cyrillonas’, ZDMG 27 (1873), 566–625. (Syr.)
- D. Cerbelaud, L’agneau véritable (1984). (FT)
- S. Landersdorfer, Ausgewählte Schriften der syrischen Dichter (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter 6; 1913), 1–54. (GT)
- E. Vergani, ‘ “Mondo creato” e Chiesa nella meditazione di Cirillona’, in Le ricchezze spirituali delle Chiese sire, ed. E. Vergani and S. Chialà (2004), 119–50.
- C. Vona, I Carmi di Cirillona (1963). (IT)