Rabban Bar Sawma was born around 1220 and died in 1294. His family was well to do and was from a Nestorian background.
He was well educated and at puberty he was betrothed to a young lady. When he was 20, he refused to marry and decided to become a monk. Rabban Bar Sawma was a religious teacher and eventually partnered up with one of his students, Rabban Markos. The two monks began a journey to Jerusalem.
They experienced many trials along the way and were inhibited from making it to Jerusalem due to warnings and rumors of treacherous paths on the way to Syria. In Persia they encountered the Patriarch Denha I of the Church of the East. He welcomed them and wanted them to return to China as messengers, but they were unable to due to military conflicts.
Eventually Denha I died, and Markos was elected the new Patriarch of the region. After arriving to Maragheh, Markos stayed as the new Patriarch and the Khan appointed Rabban Bar Sawma to be an ambassador to France and the European countries. The Khan wanted him to visit kings and Byzantium, Italy, France, and England.
During this time, Rabban Bar Sawma made trips to and from other European countries to offer gifts from his Khan to the Monarchs. While some of the contacts in Europe did not produce any results, Rabban Bar Sawma was able to establish crucial trading routes and contacts within some European monarchs that established a connection with the Khan and Europe.
In 1291, Rabban Bar Sawma made the decision to stop traveling and was granted permission to build a church in Maragheh. The church was finished in 1293 and he returned to Baghdad. After his ambassadorship he settled in Baghdad and possibly wrote many of his writings and died in 1294. He was buried in the church of Der ar-Rhomaye.