Ephrem the Syrian

Lore & Background

Ephrem the Syrian, also called Ephraem the Deacon, was born around 306 in Nisibis, a recently acquired Roman city in Mesopotamia. He grew up in a Christian community under Bishop Jacob of Nisibis, was baptized as a youth, and became a “son of the covenant,” a form of early Syriac proto-monasticism. Jacob appointed him a teacher, and he was ordained a deacon. He began composing hymns and biblical commentaries as part of his teaching office. Ephrem is popularly credited with founding the School of Nisibis, which later became a major center of learning for the Church of the East. He lived through three Persian sieges of Nisibis (338, 346, 350), celebrating the third as a miraculous salvation in a hymn comparing the city to Noah’s Ark. After the Roman surrender of Nisibis to Persia in 363, he was forced to leave and settled in Edessa, where he continued teaching, possibly at the School of Edessa. There, amid rival Christian sects and philosophies, he wrote many hymns defending Nicene orthodoxy. A notable feature of his ministry was his use of all-women choirs to sing his teaching hymns (madrāšê) set to Syriac folk tunes, a practice that gave rise to the Syriac tradition of deaconess choir members. His works, both poetic and exegetical, were so influential that for centuries after his death, authors produced hundreds of pseudepigraphal writings in his name. He is venerated as a saint across all traditional Churches, especially in Syriac Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox Church, and was declared a Doctor of the Catholic Church in 1920.

Reader's Guide

Ephrem was born around 306 in Nisibis. He was baptized as a youth and became a son of the covenant. Bishop Jacob of Nisibis appointed him as a teacher, and he was ordained as a deacon. He began composing hymns and biblical commentaries as part of his educational office. He is popularly credited as the founder of the School of Nisibis. After the Persian siege and surrender of Nisibis in 363, Ephrem moved to Edessa, where he continued his work as a teacher, perhaps in the School of Edessa. He wrote hymns defending Nicene orthodoxy. In 370 he visited Basil the Great at Caesarea and then journeyed to the monks of Egypt. He died in 373, succumbing to the plague as he ministered to its victims.

Did You Know?

• Ephrem wrote exclusively in his native Aramaic language, using the local Edessan dialect that later became known as Classical Syriac.
• He is known as 'the authentic voice of Aramaic Christianity.'
• Ephrem declined being ordained a bishop by feigning madness, because he regarded himself unworthy.
• The baptistery of Nisibis, constructed under Bishop Vologeses in 359, is an important physical link to Ephrem's lifetime.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306 – 373) was a Syriac deacon, prolific Syriac-language hymn writer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians, and especially Syriac Christians, as a saint." — Ephrem the Syrian "The hutzpah of our love is pleasing to you, O Lord, just as it pleased you that we should steal from your bounty." — Ephrem the Syrian "Thy possessions have made thee a hollow image; they have ruined thee and left thee." — Ephrem the Syrian "1. Awake, O my harp, thy cords, in praise of Mary the Virgin.Lift up thy voice, and sing the generation utterly marvelous of this virgin David's daughter, whi hath brought forth life to the world." — Ephrem the Syrian