Feast Day ~ January 28
As we so often hear in church, what God expects of us is faithfulness: faithfulness to his word as laid out in Holy Scripture and the teachings of the Church, faithfulness in repentance and sorrow for our sins, faithfulness in worship and receiving the sacraments. Whether the circumstances of our lives bring us peace and tranquility or turmoil, pain, and sorrow, we are to remain faithful to God in order to be received into his everlasting Kingdom. One of the saints whom the Church holds up for our veneration and who demonstrates this faithfulness is St. Ephrem the Syrian, who died in the year 373.
Ephrem is held in high regard by scholars in several disciplines. His poetry in the Syriac language is considered by many to be the best of its type; it has been thoroughly studied by linguists and has been translated over the centuries into many other languages. Historians also benefit from references in his poems, prose works, and letters that corroborate events in the Roman and Persian empires in the fourth century. Theologians marvel at the ways in which Ephrem was able to express ideas concerning God in the symbolic and poetic language that he used. But for most of us, it is Ephrem’s faithfulness through many challenges that brings us to venerate him as a saint.
We learn through his own words that Ephrem was the child of Christian parents, born in the city of Nisibis on the edge of the Roman Empire (in modern-day Turkey). He was fortunate to have as his mentors several important bishops, the first of whom was St. Jacob, one of those present at the first Council of Nicea in 325. After the Council, Bishop Jacob appointed Ephrem as a teacher in his church. Although there is no extant historical record of Ephrem’s education, it is obvious from his writings that he was extremely knowledgeable and erudite, and his bishop made good use of Ephrem’s abilities. At a time when Orthodox teachings, especially on the Person of Christ, were being challenged from many different directions, one who could clearly expound the Church’s teachings was of great value.
Ephrem was ordained deacon to further serve the church in Nisibis and his diaconal role may, of necessity, have included helping the people through sieges in 338, 346, and 350. The Persian army attacked on those three occasions and their last effort was especially brutal as a nearby river was dammed in order to flood the city. In Ephrem’s hymns about Nisibis, he describes this event, comparing the town to Noah’s Ark.
But worse was to come. Emperor Julian (the “Apostate”) was killed in 363 attempting an attack on Persian territory and in the aftermath, Nisibis was given to Persia. One of the conditions of the peace treaty was that all of the Christian inhabitants of Nisibis would leave. Many of the Christians moved to join the Christian community of Edessa, Ephrem among them. He was probably in his 50s at this time, now facing a new challenge.
Edessa was the setting of even more religious speculation than Nisibis had been. Here, followers of Marcion, Bardaisan, Mani, and Arius vied for the attentions of Christians. Ephrem’s faithfulness to Orthodox Christianity in his writings, teachings, and in his life were needed even more here. Writing about 150 years after the death of Ephrem, another Syriac poet, Jacob of Serugh, said that he wrote hymns which were set to music for the women of the church – who had heretofore remained silent – to sing. This was probably to combat the efforts of the Arians who sent female choirs into the marketplace to spread their doctrines in a popular way.
A famine, probably due to drought, occurred in Edessa in 372. Deacon Ephrem was able to help the many people who were suffering from hunger. He observed that some people had stockpiles of food that they were unwilling to share with their less fortunate neighbors. Ephrem chastised them for their lack of charity and offered to act as the distribution manager of all the grain in storage. He cordoned off some streets in the city and set up beds for those who were very ill. Food was provisioned out to all so that there were no more deaths from starvation. This was the last recorded act of charity in St. Ephrem’s life, as he passed from this world to the next in the year 373.
St. Ephrem was faithful to the end. Through the turmoil of war, exile, famine, and challenges to the faith, he used his skills as a writer and teacher to pass on the Truth and he gave of his time and energy in helping those in need. May we, through the grace of God and the prayers of St.Ephrem, do likewise.
Resources: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns on Paradise, Introduction and translation by Sebastian Brock; The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 91: St. Ephrem the Syrian – Selected Prose Works, tr. by Edward Mathews, Jr. and Joseph Amar; Orthodox Saints Vol. I by George Poulos; online articles from Wikipedia, OrthodoxWiki, and the Orthodox Church in America.