- Our Holy Father Ephraim the Syrian (373)
- He is often called "The Harp of the Holy
Spirit" for the sublimity of his writings. He was born in Nisibis of Mesopotamia about
the year 306. He embraced the Christian faith while young and for this was driven from
his home by his father, a pagan priest. He came under the care of St James of Nisibis
(January 13), who was one of the bishops at the Council of Nicaea. He took up a strictly
ascetical life, renouncing all possessions and denying himself all comforts. It is said that
his eyes constantly flowed with tears: tears of compunction for his own sins, or tears of
joy as he contemplated the wonders of God's grace.
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He was baptized at the age of twenty and withdrew to the desert, then settled in
Edessa. Once, as he was walking to the city, a harlot approached him. Pretending to
accept her proposition, he took her to the city's public square and suggested that they
lie together there, in plain view. Horrified, the woman rebuked him, saying 'Have you
no shame?' The Saint answered, 'Poor woman, you are afraid of being watched by
other people; buy why are you not afraid of being seen by God, who sees everything
and, on the last day, will judge all our actions and most secret thoughts?' The woman
repented and, with the Saint's help, embarked upon a new life.
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The Saint returned to the desert for a time, then to Nisibis to aid the Persian
Christians, persecuted because they were seen as allies of the Romans. When Nisibis
finally fell under Persian rule, St Ephraim and his spiritual father St James both settled
in Edessa. At that time Edessa was troubled by the gnostic heretic Bardaisan, one of
whose devices was to compose attractive hymns, which became popular and enticed
many away from the truth. Taking up Bardaisan's own weapons, St Ephraim composed
a number of hymns, beautiful in word and melody, which poetically set forth the true
Faith.
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Hearing of the sanctity of St Basil the Great, St Ephraim traveled to Cappadocia
to meet him. It is recorded that at their first meeting, St Basil greeted him: 'Art thou the
Ephraim who hath beautifully bended his neck and taken upon himself the yoke of the
saving Word?'; to which St Ephraim replied, 'I am Ephraim who hinder myself from
traveling the way to heaven.' After discoursing with the Syrian Saint for some time, St
Basil cried out 'O, if only I had thy sins!' Basil then ordained St Ephraim to the
diaconate. He would have ordained him a priest but St Ephraim, feeling unworthy,
refused to be ordained, then and for the rest of his life.
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The Saint returned to a life of solitude; but when a famine broke out in Edessa in
372, he came forth to rebuke the wealthy for failing to share their wealth with the poor.
Some replied that they knew no one whom they could trust with their goods, so St
Ephraim persuaded them to give their alms to him for distribution to the poor. A true
deacon, he cared for the sick with his own hands. The following year, he reposed in
peace.
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St Ephraim was the first to use hymnody and song to express the teaching of the
Church, and so might be called the Church's first hymnographer. His works were
probably an inspiration to St Romanos the Melodist, also a Syrian. He is said to have
written more than three million lines of verse in Syriac, in addition to many homilies
and treatises. Only a fraction of his work has been translated.
source: http://www.abbamoses.com
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