[5] Marutha then entered the monastery of Saint Zacchaeus, near Raqqa in Syria, to study Greek, Syriac, and theology, in particular the work of Gregory of Nazianzus, under the monk Theodore for ten years.
[6] Subsequently, he sequestered himself as a hermit near Edessa, during which time he mastered calligraphy, and then moved to the monastery of Beth Raqum, near Balad, and studied under the monk Thomas.
[7] The non-Chalcedonian miaphysites (later termed Syriac Orthodox) of Beth Nuhadra twice appealed to Marutha to become their bishop, and whilst he refused to assume the office, on the second occasion, he agreed to travel to the region to provide teaching.
[11] However, in the closing stages of the war, by which point the Roman Emperor Heraclius had reversed the tide and made significant advances into the heartland of the Sasanian Empire, miaphysites faced renewed persecution.
[9][14] Marutha was successively ordained as bishop of Beth Arbaye by Christopher and then archbishop of Tikrit and Grand Metropolitan of the East by Athanasius.
[15] Bar Hebraeus in his Ecclesiastical History names Marutha as the first miaphysite Grand Metropolitan of the East to hold the title maphrian, however, it was likely not in use until c. 1100.
[22] In response to the appeals of miaphysites from Edessa who had been forcibly resettled in the Sasanian Empire, he ordained and dispatched bishops of Adurbadagan, Sakastan, and Herat.
[26] A letter from Marutha to John, who succeeded Athanasius as patriarch of Antioch, is preserved in Michael the Syrian's Chronicle, in which he alleges the adoption of Nestorianism by the Church of the East and the dyophysite archbishop Barsauma's role in the persecution of miaphysites.