John VIII bar Abdoun was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1004 until his death in 1033.
[4] The conduct of Bar Abdoun led John, Bishop of Melitene, to denounce him to Alexius Studites, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Constantine VIII, the successor of Basil II, not long before his death in 1028.
Failing that, Chrysoberges reluctantly arrested Bar Abdoun, six high-ranking bishops, and 20 monks,[6] and sent them to Constantinople to be judged before a synodal tribunal.
[8] The Romans unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the majority of the clergymen to abandon the Syriac Orthodox Church,[9] and, as a result, in October 1029, Bar Abdoun and the others were excommunicated and banished to the Monastery of Ganos in Thrace.
[5] According to the edict of Alexius, issued in May 1030, three Syriac Orthodox bishops that accompanied Bar Abdoun converted to Greek Orthodoxy to avoid exile.