St. Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 306–373/379)

KENNETH CARVELEY

Ephrem was born to Christian parents in Nisibis. Legend describes his father as a heathen priest. During his youth he was influenced by Bishop Jacob (d. 338; present at Nicea 325, possibly with Ephrem) who appointed him as a church teacher. During the episcopate of Bishop Vologeses, the Per­sian Shapur II besieged the city and Ephrem migrated with the people to the Christian city of Edessa in 363, where he is said to have worked in the bath house. Teaching in the schola he defended the Orthodox Nicene teaching (the Edessene Orthodox group then called “Palutians,” so named after Bishop Palut), and countered Arianism, Marcionism, the Bardesainians, and other Gnostic heresies. A prolific Syriac hymn writer, Ephrem wrote poetic homilies, biblical commentaries, and graceful hymns affirming Orthodox Christology, meant to counter the metrical hymns of Bardesanes’ son Harmodios. He was possibly employed as liturgical chant writer for a community of Syriac women ascetics. His chief writings include Carmina Nisibena, Hymns On Faith, Hymns on Paradise, On Virginity, Against Heresies, and an (attributed) pane­gyric on St. Basil of Caesarea. His hymns, many of which mirror Hebraic parallel form, constitute part of the Syriac Church’s liturgy, particularly for major feasts; a very popular prayer of repentance of St. Ephrem (“Lord and Master of my Life”) is preserved in the regular Orthodox Lenten cycle of prayers. Sayings attributed to him appear in the Apophthegmata Patrum, and he had a distinctive influence over the traditions of Syro-Byzantine hymnody and liturgical chant. Scholars are still in the process, however, of disentangling the real Ephrem (the Syrian sage) from the so-called Greco- Byzantine Ephrem, with whom he was con­founded at an early date. He supported the people of Edessa indefatigably during per­secution by the Arian Emperor Valens (370–2) and in times of severe famine. Later Edessene hagiographic tradition developed his life and legend extensively.

SEE ALSO: Council of Nicea I (325); Gnosti­cism; Hymnography; Virgins

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Brock, S. (1992) The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of St. Ephrem. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications.

Brock, S. (1999) “St. Ephrem in the Eyes of Later Syriac Liturgical Tradition,” Hugoye Journal of Syriac Studies 2, 1.

McVey, K. E. (trans.) (1989) Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns. New York: Paulist Press.

Mayer, R. T. (trans.) (1964) Palladius: The Lausiac History. New York: Newman Press.

Schaff, P. and Wace, H. (eds.) (1976) Gregory the Great, Ephraim Syrus. Aphrahat Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, vol. 13, part 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.