ON ST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN, AT EDESSA IN MESOPOTAMIA,
In the year 378.
Preliminary Commentary.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
By the author I. B.
Section I. By whom was the Life of St. Ephrem written?
[1] That great Syrian Ephrem, as St. Chrysostom says in his oration against impious heretics and on the consummation of the age (which Ephrem himself, divinely instructed, predicted would be his last), Ephrem, then, that great one, as this truly greatest of men proclaims him, the awakener of the torpid, St. Ephrem, a man most excellent, the consoler of the afflicted, the discipline, instructor, and exhorter of the young, the mirror of monks, the leader of penitents, the sword and javelin against heretics, the receptacle of virtues, and the dwelling-place and lodging of the Holy Spirit; that most celebrated Ephrem, I say, adorned the Church with his virtues and writings in the most wretched times under the Emperors Constantius, Julian, and Valens; born in Mesopotamia and having spent his entire life there, in the most remote province of the Roman Empire and the one most exposed to the incursions of the Persian Gentiles; in which at that time very many heretics lived intermingled with the Catholics — not only Arians relying on the authority of impious Caesars and Governors, and the old Bardesanites, Manichaeans, Novatianists, and the more recent Apollinarists, but also certain men who had been trained by Ephrem himself in piety, and who, having cast it aside, became adversaries of the truth; among whose leaders Paulonas and Anarad, furnished with no common learning, armed an evil hand with the worst of weapons.
[2] praised by many Fathers, Ephrem gained not only his provincial fellow Syrians as admirers, but also the most learned among the Greeks, and certain Latins, as imitators and praisers. Basil, certainly, while Ephrem was still alive, as Sozomen writes below, especially admired him for his learning and praised him most highly: others proclaimed him the most distinguished of all. After his death, Basil's brother Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, celebrated him in an eloquent oration: many writers of his age wove his praises into the works they had composed. No one, however, more abundantly than Ephrem himself — though he most eagerly desired to remain hidden and forbade that he should be honored with praise even after death — and by himself, contrary to his intention, in his writings, revealed his virtues in his own writings: for either accusing his own negligence, he meanwhile commemorated the gifts of God bestowed upon him; or wishing to rouse his disciples to constancy of faith, zeal for poverty, and other virtues, he himself set before them his own deeds for imitation. And indeed he could not have written so excellently about the virtues (so that no one reading his writings now can fail to be moved in spirit and vehemently inflamed) unless he himself had experienced and tested their workings, not by languid speculation, but by practice and exercise: which, although it holds true for many writers — from whose spirit, as their writings reveal it, we form a conjecture of what the holiness of their life was — yet shines forth especially in this man.
[3] If anyone, therefore, should wish to produce a complete portrait of his life, he must carefully and attentively study all of Ephrem's writings: so as not to pluck honey piecemeal like a bee from flowers, which St. Gregory of Nyssa professes to have done, from these a Life must be composed. but rather to gather and pack together entire honeycombs. This was accomplished to some extent some years ago by Michael Hoyerus, an Augustinian, who published an elegant little book on his life and virtues: it seems, however, that this could be done more fully, if someone should study and weigh all of Ephrem's writings. But this is neither our purpose here, nor do we have the leisure. We shall therefore present only those things which have been openly and professedly committed to writing about his deeds, either by Ephrem himself or by others.
[4] The first will be the Narrative of our Holy Father Ephrem himself to the monks concerning his conversion: here is given 1. The Narrative of his conversion, which, copied from a most ancient manuscript codex of the library of the monastery of Crypta-ferrata near Tusculum, was rendered into Latin by Gerardus Vossius of Belgium, and published in volume 2 of the Works of Ephrem; who, by a probable conjecture, determines that this Narrative was either composed by Ephrem's disciples, who had nevertheless learned it from his own account; or written by Ephrem himself, but that those first words, "The holy Abbot Ephrem, when the Brethren came to him, which seems to be by another: narrated about himself for their edification, saying," were prefixed to the Narrative after his death by his disciples or admirers. But what seems more probable to us is that it is the narrative of another person, who committed to writing, under Ephrem's own person, what he had previously heard from Ephrem or his disciples — perhaps with some occasional lapses of memory — just as throughout the Lives of the Fathers, various narratives and apophthegms of theirs are related as if in their own words. What especially leads us to think this way is another work of Ephrem himself, which is entitled Confession and Self-Reproach, and which is extant in volume 3 of his Works: the first part of which, 2. another, by Ephrem himself: in which he recalls the occasion of his conversion, we shall give; and also what he then adds about his family, the condition of his parents, and the vices of his youth. For the many things he inserts about his own sins, or negligence in the functions of the religious life, Vossius judges that he uttered more from humility of soul, for the instruction of others, than from the truth. For good and religious men, even where there is no fault, acknowledge fault; not so much from error of conscience, as because they do not always clearly understand that involuntary wanderings of the mind during prayer, movements of the passions, and first impulses to sin, and other things of that kind, are entirely free from fault, or at least impute it to their own negligence that they have not yet uprooted the roots of these evils. And indeed that these were not deliberate sins, Ephrem himself declares near the end of that Confession, writing thus: But this alone remains to me as excuse and defense amid such great evils, that I have given no one occasion of offense or scandal... I was indeed drawn toward falsehood, but I did not delight in it... In psalmody I conducted myself negligently, but I was not distracted by other worldly things. He laments similar things about himself in another Self-Reproach in volume 1. But he nevertheless confesses that his outward works were good, though his intention was perhaps not entirely pure: Woe is me, he says, that what is hidden within me is not as what outwardly appears!
[5] 3. His Testament: This second Narrative of Ephrem's conversion, then, somewhat diverging from the first, we shall also give here. To it we shall append his Testament, packed with excellent examples and admonitions, previously published by Lipomanus, Surius, and others; collated by us with a Greek manuscript copy.
[6] 4. The oration of St. Gregory of Nyssa: Then we shall produce the oration of St. Gregory of Nyssa, delivered on the anniversary day of Ephrem's death, rendered into Latin by the same Vossius, but corrected in the Parisian edition of the Works of Gregory of Nyssa against the Greek exemplar, and likewise by us in passing, and divided into chapters. In fifth place we shall set a brief Life, written by an unknown Greek author and translated by Vossius, 5. Another brief Life: from the Vatican manuscripts and others: to which, in the codex of Crypta-ferrata, the following title was prefixed, as Vossius attests: Peri tou kyrou Ephraim. is. tou Amphilochiou Episkopou — Concerning the Lord Ephrem. perhaps, of Amphilochius the Bishop. But this attribution is not entirely approved either by Vossius himself, or by our Rosweydus, who also published it in the Lives of the Fathers. Another more prolix Life was written by Metaphrastes, which, translated into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus, was published by Lipomanus, and by Vossius in volume 2 of the Works of Ephrem. But since this is extant in Surius and contains nothing that is not described more copiously by St. Gregory of Nyssa, we shall omit it here.
[7] 6. part of the Life of St. Basil, In sixth place, therefore, we shall recite a portion of the Life of St. Basil the Great, which is commonly thought to have been written by St. Amphilochius; which is not accepted by Bellarmine and Baronius, nor before them by Michael Glycas, a Greek man: we shall discuss this in its own time, when we give the complete Acts of Basil. That this Life was considered the work of Amphilochius about 800 years ago is evident from the preface of the translator Ursus, first published by Rosweydus in the Lives of the Fathers. And although
it must be admitted that it has been interpolated in many places, there is nevertheless no reason why we should be compelled to deny it entirely to Amphilochius. And indeed Vossius testifies that he found that portion which treats of St. Ephrem under the name of Amphilochius. which is commonly attributed to St. Amphilochius. Here, however, we shall now present it in such a way that each reader — and we ourselves afterwards — shall be free to pronounce on the authorship in either direction. We have this Life, written long ago in Latin in an ancient and rough style, from old manuscripts, from the old manuscript codices of the monasteries of Marchiennes, St. Ghislain, St. Maximin, and the Church of Saint-Omer; which Surius published in a more polished style: the same work translated from the Greek by Ursus, as we have already said, a Subdeacon of the Holy Roman Church: and also a Greek manuscript from the library of the Most Christian King of France, which was rendered into Latin at the request of Rosweydus by our Guilielmus Gratius; and which, translated by him, was published in Greek and Latin by Franciscus Combefis of the Order of Preachers. We shall now present that first translation, which appears to be older than that of Ursus, though it was by no means known to him; from it, I say, chapters 14 and 16, which treat of St. Ephrem — numbered 11 and 10 in Vossius and Rosweydus, and 13 and 16 in the edition of Combefis.
[8] 7. another from Sozomen: The seventh will be the narrative of Sozomen from his Ecclesiastical History, book 3, chapter 15, with which Nicephorus agrees, book 9, chapter 16. The latter part of it is related by Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 101, and by Vincent of Beauvais, book 17, chapter 87.
[9] Whether any other writing about the deeds of St. Ephrem exists among the Greeks, Nicephorus Callistus, book 9, chapter 16, provides occasion to inquire, with these words: "Very many other things worthy of record, both the writing composed about him, and the people of his region, Romans and Syrians alike, relate concerning him, which anyone may readily consult." is there another writing in Greek? Whether this book written about St. Ephrem is one of the commentaries already cited, or whether all or most of these represent a collection, or whether it is some distinct work, it is not easy to determine. It is indeed remarkable that the most eloquent Metaphrastes did not gather together all that exists in the ancient sources, as he usually does. Molanus, Annotation 3 on the Martyrology of Usuardus, writes thus: "But Gennadius also in his Catalogue attests that Peter, a Priest of the Church of Edessa, composed psalms on the death of the holy Deacon." mention of him in other authors. But either Molanus used a defective codex, or he himself copied carelessly: for Gennadius has it that Peter composed psalms in metre "in the manner of St. Ephrem the Deacon."
[10] Among the Latins, Vincent of Beauvais treats of St. Ephrem in book 14, chapter 86 from Amphilochius in the Life of St. Basil; and in chapter 87 from St. Jerome, etc.; and in book 17, chapter 87 from Heraclides. St. Antoninus, part 2, title 10, chapter 4, sections 5 and 6. Peter de Natali, book 3, chapter 70, who calls him Effron; but in book 2, chapter 28, in the Life of St. Basil, Effrem.
Section II. The feast day and age of St. Ephrem.
[11] The feast of St. Ephrem is celebrated by the Latins on the 1st of February, and by the Greeks on the 28th of January: celebrated on February 1 among the Latins; Concerning him on February 1, Usuardus, the common Bede, Ado, Notkerus, and others have the following: On the same day, of Blessed Ephrem, Deacon of the Church of Edessa: to which the modern Roman Martyrology adds: who after many labors undertaken for the faith of Christ, under the Emperor Valens, renowned for holiness and learning, rested in the Lord. Certain others add more. A manuscript copy of Ado from the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liege has: On the same day, of Blessed Effren, Deacon of the Church of Edessa, who published a book of sweet exhortations; and who was cultivated with the greatest veneration by Blessed Basil. Whose death Blessed Effren himself foresaw by divine revelation, when he hastily sent back to Basil a woman who had been sent to him by Basil, who had written her sin on a paper, admonishing her to hasten before St. Basil departed. She, returning, beheld St. Basil being carried to the tomb: and from this she believed that Blessed Effren had truly prophesied. The manuscript Florarium has nearly the same, and adds: He flourished in the year of salvation 369. Maurolycus: On the same day, of Blessed Ephrem, Deacon of the Church of Edessa, renowned for learning and solitude, who saw Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in the form of a fiery column. Canisius: Likewise of the holy and celebrated Ephrem, who, being a Deacon of the Church of Edessa, led an austere life in solitude: but when famine pressed the people, leaving his cell, he preached to the wealthier citizens and collected money for sustaining the poor in their need. By the prayers of St. Basil (in the 2nd edition, Blasius, erroneously) he obtained from God the grace of speaking Greek: he beheld the same Bishop in the form of a fiery globe: and at last, renowned for holiness, he departed. In the margin the year 374 is noted. But where did Canisius read that about the fiery globe? Constantius Felicius: Ephrem the Syrian, Deacon of Edessa, born of Christian parents, flourished in the time of Basil the Great, being especially dear to him, whom he saw in the form of a fiery column: he was a most holy man and a true exemplar of humility and poverty, the overthrower of all heresies, speaking to everyone in their own language, although he knew only Syriac: he died on this day and is most celebrated among Christians. Nor do we know where this author got the idea that St. Ephrem was endowed with the gift of speaking in various tongues.
[12] among the Greeks on January 28: The Greeks celebrate him, as we have said, on the 28th of January, on which day the Menologium published by Canisius has: The feast of the most reverend holy Father Ephrem the Syrian, from the homeland of Edessa, in whose praise there exists a discourse of St. Gregory of Nyssa. More extensive material about him is found in the Menaea, and indeed the following concerning his deeds, which are also found in the Anthologion of Antonius Arcudius: He was born in the East, a Syrian by nation, taught piety by his ancestors, and flourished in the time of Theodosius the Great, having embraced the monastic life while still quite young: to whom it is said that grace was divinely infused, by which he published many books suited to compunction of soul, and led many mortals to virtue; and he became an example for the subsequent establishment of the ascetic life. His feast is celebrated in the church of St. Aquilina, in the place called Philoxenus, near the forum. St. Aquilina, in whose temple, or martyrion, St. Ephrem was customarily venerated at Constantinople, will be treated by us on the 13th of June. Petrus Galesinius, following the Greeks, writes on the 28th of January: At Edessa in Syria, of St. Ephrem, Confessor. He, excelling in the greatest virtues, under the Emperor Constantine the Great, greatly advanced the Christian cause both by living piously and by teaching and writing usefully. At last, laden with many merits, he rested in the Lord in extreme old age. The Greek Menologium, which Baronius frequently cites as having been collected by the Emperor Basil, has the following on the same day, as cited and translated by Vossius: Ephrem, at Edessa in Syria, under the Emperor Constantine the Great, born of Christian parents, lived until the time of Valens: from whose infant mouth his parents once saw in a dream a vine issuing forth, which, spreading in every direction and stretching its branches to the ends of the earth, seemed to fill the earth itself, and from whose fruit the birds were fed: and they understood that this dream-figure portended the most abundant knowledge of all things which would exist in their son. Nor did the event fail to match the conjecture: for, filled with every kind of virtue, he was of great use and benefit to the Christian Commonwealth. And that he might be of still greater service to mortals, when he had come to Caesarea, having been made a Priest by Basil the Great, he suddenly began to master the Greek language (of which, as a man born in the heart of Syria, he had been entirely ignorant and inexperienced): and afterwards, having deserved most excellently of the commonwealth by writing, teaching, and doing many distinguished things, he departed from human life in extreme old age. So it reads there.
[13] But he appears to have died neither on the 28th of January nor on the 1st of February. For since Palladius, his contemporary, he died on neither date, writes in the Lausiac History, chapter 101, that after he had spent an entire year at Edessa caring for the sick and the poor, and when abundance of crops had succeeded, he returned to his cell, and died after a month, he seems rather to have died in the summer, but rather in summer or autumn. or at the beginning of autumn, than in the middle of winter: for that abundance and fertility of crops did not begin at the end of December (as one would have to say), when the hope of harvest was either still in the blade, remote and uncertain; or when grain had been stored away for five or six months; but as soon as it could conveniently be reaped, or when the hope of harvest was near at hand, and the food supply, which had been pressing, was brought forth and sold at a low price. Why, however, his memory has been assigned to these days, we have not discovered.
[14] But the entire span of his life, insofar as we can ascertain it, must be briefly set forth. The Menologium of the Emperor Basil, as we have already seen, records that he was born while Constantine the Great held power: when was he born? therefore at the very beginning of his reign; since, although he died in extreme old age, he nevertheless departed in the year of Christ 378, and in the year of Christ 338, under Constantius I, he already had no small celebrity of reputation, as we shall presently say. Wherefore the shorter Life, which we shall give in fifth place, merely states that he lived in the times of Constantine the Great, King, and of the others who reigned after him. It is more certain that he took up the monastic life in the time of Constantine: in what place and under what master it is superfluous to conjecture. The second ancient monument, appended by Vossius from manuscripts at the end of volume three, states that he carried on his spiritual exercises in the days of Constantine the Great... and that he flourished until the reign of Valens, under whom he also died.
[15] After, moreover, that great and admirable Emperor, as Theodoretus writes in his Philotheus, chapter 1, departed this life with the crowns of piety; and his sons became heirs of the empire of the world; then the King of Persia, whose name was Sapor, despising the sons as men whose power was not equal to their father's, moved war against Nisibis, Nisibis besieged in the year 338 with great forces of both cavalry and infantry, etc. Constantine died in the year of Christ 337, on the 22nd of May. In the following year, that is, under Constantius I, Sapor, King of Persia, as St. Jerome has it in his Chronicle, having laid waste Mesopotamia, besieged Nisibis for nearly two months... Jacobus, Bishop of Nisibis, is recognized: by whose prayers the city was often delivered from danger. How this came about, we shall recount in the Life of the same holy Bishop on the 15th of July, from the already cited Theodoretus, who in his Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 30, narrates that the city was assaulted for seventy days with every kind of siege engine; and that the wall, weakened by the force of the river Mygdonius — first dammed by opposing embankments, then suddenly released — was divinely restored in a single night by the prayers of Jacobus. Then, indeed, which is to our present purpose, he writes thus: At the same time Ephrem, a man truly admirable and by far the most excellent writer among the Syrians, beseeches Jacobus he assists St. Jacobus the Bishop to ascend the walls, gaze upon the barbarians, and hurl the weapons of execration against them. The holy man, complying with his request, ascended a certain tower: and when he beheld their vast multitude, he prayed for nothing else than that gnats and mosquitoes be sent against them, so that even through these tiny creatures the power of Him who aided them might be recognized. The Tripartite History relates the same in book 5, chapter 45.
[16] When Ephrem set out for Edessa, when and in what city he was called to the episcopate, is unknown to us. It is probable that he dwelt near Edessa for a long time, since Sozomen, book 6, chapter 34, reckons him and St. Julian as leaders among the monks living near Edessa and the neighboring cities; and Ephrem himself in his Testament, he kindles piety at Edessa, addresses the Edessenes in general as his disciples and children in the pursuit of piety: so that it is not surprising that Julian the Apostate passed quickly through Edessa, as the same Sozomen writes, book 6, chapter 1, perhaps out of hatred of its inhabitants, he says, since from the very beginning that city had professed the Christian religion; and at that time especially cultivated it with such ardor of spirit in difficult times: that when afterwards the Emperor Valens had taken the church there from the Catholics, they held their assemblies in a field before the city while he looked on, contemptuous even of the threats of the Prefect, as is narrated in the same work, chapter 17. And therefore Ephrem himself was perhaps also harassed by the same impious Valens, by whom Saints Barses the Bishop, Eulogius, and Protogenes, Priests, were driven into exile.
[17] At last, at the end, as we suppose, of the same Emperor's reign, certainly under the Prince Valens, he died in the year 378. he departed, as St. Jerome has it in his book On Illustrious Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 115. Whether, moreover, St. Basil died before him, as that Life which is attributed to St. Amphilochius holds, or in the following year, five months after the death of Valens, we shall discuss elsewhere. St. Jerome in the cited book, chapter 116, writes that St. Basil died during the reign of Gratian, that is, after the death of Valens: for what Baronius writes at the year 378, number 1 — that St. Jerome preferred to refer the death of St. Basil to the time of the pious Emperor, who in that very year, after Valens was slain, also assumed the administration of the Eastern empire — is of no consequence: for why then did he not also refer Ephrem's death to the same reign of Gratian? Nor does the encomium of St. Basil written by St. Ephrem necessarily prove that the latter survived the former, since there is nothing in it that cannot be understood as referring to a living person, although the translator seems to have understood otherwise. We therefore agree rather with St. Jerome, who was then residing in Syria, than with the Menaea or the recently published Anthologion, concerning the time of his death, especially since among the Greeks, nearly 800 years ago, in the time of the Emperor Basil, the same opinion prevailed.
Section III. The homeland of St. Ephrem and his ecclesiastical rank.
[18] Moreover, what city gave that great man to the world is a matter of uncertainty. Sozomen, nearest to his times — since he wrote under Theodosius the Younger — has the following in book 3, chapter 15: a Nisibean, "Born at Nisibis, he traced his lineage from the regions of that city." So Ephrem himself writes of his ancestors in his Confession: that his forebears lived by the work of their hands; that his grandfathers were farmers, but enjoyed prosperous circumstances; and that his parents, who were born of this humble stock, had confessed Christ before the tribunal. But Christophorsonus, instead of "regions," reads "from the indigenous people of that city." Sozomen in this entire narrative about Ephrem is followed by Nicephorus, book 9, chapter 16: "who had Nisibis as his homeland," he says. He was indeed at Nisibis when it was besieged by the Persians in the year of Christ 338, as we have said. Yet for that reason it cannot be asserted with certainty that it was his homeland. He had perhaps retreated there after his monastery was destroyed by the Persians ravaging Mesopotamia. Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology asserts that he was born at Nisibis and was the pupil, disciple in learning, and heir in holiness of Bishop Jacobus.
[19] The Menologium of the Emperor Basil, cited above, and the other published by Henricus Canisius, as also the shorter Life by an anonymous writer below, record that Edessa was his homeland. Metaphrastes also, in Surius, chapter 1, says: "He was born in Syria, in the city of Edessa," or an Edessene — uncertain: and in chapter 3, "he came to his homeland, Edessa." Hoierus agrees. St. Gregory of Nyssa favors this, according to the interpretation which we shall give below in chapter 4, number 15. For he has: "Thence, like that Abraham who was commanded, he made for the city of the Edessenes, which had borne him." Vossius translates: "Whence, commanded to leave his homeland like that great Abraham, he made for the city of the Edessenes." He seems to have read a different Greek text. But even if he was returning to his homeland, he could nevertheless be compared to the Patriarch who, at God's command, immediately changed his dwelling, even one located outside his homeland in the same Mesopotamia. Concerning his homeland, therefore, the matter is not clear.
[20] There is a greater controversy over whether he was initiated into the priesthood. St. Jerome, Palladius, and others call him only a Deacon. Sozomen, book 3, chapter 15: likewise, whether he was only a Deacon, "And having survived a few days, he died, having advanced in the clerical order only to the Diaconate, yet having become celebrated for virtue no less than those who are admired for their priesthood and the manner of their good life and for their learning." Nicephorus Callistus seems to attribute even less to him, book 9, chapter 16: "Deemed worthy of the clerical ministry of a deacon in the Church." Baronius also denies, in volume 4, at the year 377, number 14, that he was a Priest; since, among other things that stand against it, he says, it was not within Basil's right to ordain a Syrian.
[21] If it were entirely established that the Life of St. Basil of which we spoke above was written by St. Amphilochius, whether he was made a Priest by St. Basil; the words of St. Jerome, Palladius, and Sozomen to the contrary would not carry great weight. They had seen certain of his works translated into Greek under the title of Deacon of Edessa, and had not read about his priesthood: wherefore they called him a Deacon. It happens to us ourselves not infrequently that those whose works we have seen published under the title of Doctor of some academy, or some other title, even though they have since been elevated to the episcopate (which we can more easily know in this light of letters than they could have known that Ephrem was made a Priest in Cappadocia), we nevertheless cite under that former title of rank. The Menologium of the Emperor Basil expressly states that he was made a Priest by St. Basil: and — to pass over the writer of Beauvais, book 14, chapter 86, St. Antoninus, part 2, title 10, chapter 4, section 5, Michael Hoierus, and others who assert the same — the anonymous author on heresies, who lived about 1,200 years ago and was recently published by our Jacobus Sirmondus under the name of Praedestinatus, at heresy 57, which is that of the Messalians, expressly writes: "Ephrem, Priest of the Syrians, acted against them."
[22] Franciscus Combefis, a most learned man, in Note 112 on Amphilochius, refutes splendidly the argument in which Baronius considers the chief strength to lie: which was not then forbidden, for by ancient law it was by no means forbidden for one to promote to holy orders a person born in another diocese; but only to draw to one's own church one who was bound to another, or to confer orders upon him in such a way as then to claim authority over him by that title. And this is the meaning of the canon Illud quoque, and of canon Si quis, distinction 71, which were taken from the Council of Sardica and the Council of Nicaea, and could not have been unknown to Basil. Combefis adduces several examples of those who were in the past ordained Priests by foreign Bishops: more examples are given by Franciscus Hallerius, On Elections and Ordinations, part 2, section 5, chapter 3, article 1, section 4.
[23] The example of St. Jerome himself is celebrated in this very matter, and since it is also cited by Baronius at the year 378, number 65, it is remarkable why he would not allow Basil to have done in the case of Ephrem as is evident in St. Jerome what Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch, did in the case of Jerome. St. Jerome writes thus of his own ordination in Epistle 61 to Pammachius, against the errors of John of Jerusalem, whom he addresses thus in chapter 16: "As for your saying that you sought that they be subject to the Church of God and not rend it asunder nor make for themselves their own authority — of whom you speak, I do not well understand. If of me and of the Priest Vincentius, you have slept long enough, who after thirteen years are now roused to say these things. For both I left Antioch, and he Constantinople, most celebrated cities; not that we might praise you preaching among the people, but that in the fields and in solitude, weeping over the sins of our youth, we might turn the mercy of Christ upon us. But if your discourse concerns Paulinianus, you see that he is subject to his own Bishop, that he resides in Cyprus, that he comes sometimes to visit us, not as yours, but as belonging to another — namely, to him by whom he was ordained. But if he should wish to be here also and to live quietly in solitude in our exile, what does he owe you, except the honor which we owe to all Bishops? Suppose he was ordained by you: ordained by Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch. you would hear the same from him that Bishop Paulinus of holy memory heard from me, a poor little man: 'Did I ask you to ordain me? If you bestow the priesthood in such a way that you do not take the monk from us, you may see to your own judgment: but if under the name of Priest you take from me that for which I abandoned the world, I have what I always had: you have suffered no loss in ordaining me.'"
[24] Ephrem could indeed have said to Basil the very same things that Jerome said to Paulinus — Ephrem who was himself a monk, living in the desert, bound by no sacred ministries in the church of Edessa; instructing the people in piety only through occasional sermons and more frequent private conversations. John Trithemius, in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, has the following: "Effrem, a monk and distinguished inhabitant of the desert, and a Deacon of the Church of Edessa, having been ordained a Priest by Blessed Basil, out of humility never approached the celebration of the Divine Mysteries, although he was considered worthy before God and men." This is indeed not alien to the humility of St. Ephrem, especially since he survived only a very few years; yet Combefis rightly demands an author more ancient than Trithemius. But if he truly abstained from offering the sacrifice, it perhaps did not even become known to the Edessenes that he had been ordained a Priest.
Section IV. The learning of St. Ephrem, his writings, and his knowledge of the Greek language.
[25] During the same period, says Theodoretus in his Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 27, "at Edessa that admirable Ephrem, and at Alexandria Didymus, lived with distinction, refuting by published books the doctrines contrary to truth. And Ephrem indeed, using the Syriac language, poured forth the rays of spiritual grace. He refutes heretics, For although he had not even tasted the learning of the Gentiles, he nevertheless refuted their manifold errors and utterly laid bare the weakness of every heretical fraud." He adds what we shall cite below from Sozomen, concerning the method by which Ephrem countered the sweet poison that Harmonius had administered to the ears and minds of the people, by composing pious chants adapted to his melodies, and thus applying a remedy to his hearers that was at once most pleasant and most useful. This is also narrated in the Tripartite History, book 8, chapter 6, where, however, it is incorrectly said that Harmonius composed his songs at that time, since he was much earlier, as his father Bardesanes wrote in the time of Marcus Verus, as Theodoretus asserts in book 1 of his Compendium of Heretical Fables, chapter 22.
[26] He also possessed the highest proficiency in philosophy and especially in the sacred Scriptures, foreshadowed to him as a boy, or to his parents, by a mystical vision, and divinely infused; knowledge divinely infused: as will be clear below from St. Gregory of Nyssa and others: so that it should not seem at all surprising that he was wonderfully praised by St. Basil and others for his distinguished erudition. George Cedrenus says he writes much, that he left behind many things usefully composed. "He composed many works in the Syriac language," says St. Jerome in his book On Illustrious Ecclesiastical Writers, "and attained to such fame that after the reading of the Scriptures, his writings are publicly recited in certain churches." which were read in churches; And these, according to the testimony of Gregory of Nyssa, when translated into the Greek language, retain the same force and elegance. certain works translated into Greek: St. Jerome agrees: "I read," he says, "a Greek volume of his On the Holy Spirit, which someone had translated from the Syriac language, and I recognized the acuteness of his lofty genius even in the translation."
[27] Certain of his writings were also translated into the Latin language. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about four hundred years ago, has the following in his Speculum Historiale, book 14, chapter 87: "Seven works of this Ephrem are extant among us, certain works in Latin, namely: On Penance, On the Struggles of the World, On Compunction of Heart, On the Blessedness of the Soul, On the Resurrection, and On the Day of Judgment." The same is cited from Vincent by St. Antoninus, part 2, title 10, chapter 5, section 6, but he also lists only six, although he says seven exist. and published at various times; Trithemius, On Ecclesiastical Writers, enumerates the same, and in addition seven others, which he says are found among the Latins: On the Holy Spirit, On Contrition of Heart, On Thoughts, On Severe Preaching, On the Celebration of the Mysteries, and a Lament over the City of Edessa. Certain of these works, and others translated from Greek into Latin by Ambrosius the Camaldolese, were published at Cologne in the year 1547 by Melchior Novesianus, who dedicated them to Guilielmus Hittorpius, Abbot of Altenberg — reviewed, as we conjecture, by a certain Carthusian, from the elegy and epitaph of St. Bruno appended at the end. Certain of Ephrem's works (as Molanus writes in Note 3 on the Martyrology of Usuardus at February 1) were published at Dillingen in the year 1562.
[28] At last Gerardus Vossius, a Belgian, born at Borchlon, the chief town of the County of Loon in the diocese of Liege, Provost of Tongres, more fully by Gerardus Vossius: published at Rome whatever works of St. Ephrem could be found in the more notable libraries of Italy, especially the Roman ones, rendered into Latin by him, illustrated with scholia, and distributed into three volumes; the first volume in the year 1589, the second in 1593, the third in 1597, in the fiftieth year of his life and the twenty-fifth of his residence in the city, as he himself writes. All of which were reprinted at Cologne in the year 1603 by Arnoldus Quentelius. The most praiseworthy translator and commentator himself died at last on the 25th of March in the year 1609, at Liege, as Valerius Andreas writes in his Bibliotheca Belgica. We could wish, however, that Vossius had observed two things in this most distinguished work: first, that he had added those works of St. Ephrem which previously existed in Latin, whether translated by Ambrosius the Camaldolese or earlier by an anonymous translator, at least at the end either of the entire work or of the volume in which individual works are found in his own translation. Second, that he had published everything in both Greek and Latin, which would have been easy for him.
[29] Vossius did not, however, obtain all of Ephrem's works. For the book On the Holy Spirit, which St. Jerome attests he had read in a Greek translation, but not the book On the Holy Spirit, is lacking here. As are also the commentaries on Sacred Scripture, about which St. Gregory of Nyssa says below, number 10: "For having studied all Scripture, both Old and New, and having devoted himself to such contemplations as no other, commentaries on Scripture, he accurately interpreted the whole, word by word: and from the very creation of the world to the last book of grace, he illuminated by his commentaries what was hidden and concealed, using the light of the Spirit." But neither that interpretation nor those commentaries are to be found anywhere. Sozomen also, book 3, chapter 15: Innumerable hymns, "He is said to have written in all about three million lines." Among these, no doubt, were the hymns composed to the melodies of Harmonius, about which Theodoretus says, book 4, chapter 27: "These songs even now make the festivals of the victorious Martyrs more splendid." And these writings too either lie hidden or have entirely perished: as have very many others besides; for Photius, in Bibliotheca, codex 196, after enumerating 49 Paraeneses and other works, adds: "Although very many other works of the holy man, translated into the Greek language, are in circulation, full of power and charm of expression. many orations. The Syrians moreover affirm that he wrote more than a thousand orations: to which testimony is also given (whose authority in history, though not in matters of doctrine, is weighty) by that Eusebius surnamed Pamphili." But how could Eusebius have mentioned the writings of Ephrem? Unless, as we said above in section 2, number 15, Ephrem was already distinguished for the fame of his learning and his writings at the beginning of the reign of Constantius? Although in those books of Eusebius which are in our hands, there is no mention of him. Perhaps Photius here took the Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen for that of Eusebius, or was otherwise confused in his recollection.
[30] Concerning the style of Ephrem, especially in his Exhortations, or Paraeneses, which are found in volume 2, the same Photius judges thus: "In these admonitory discourses of the holy man, certain works translated into Greek in a humble style: one may rightly admire how deeply the power of persuasion penetrates, how much pleasantness flows from them, and how abundantly they are filled with feeling. Yet it is no wonder if his diction and figures tend toward the customary manner of homilies and the unpolished mode of speaking. For the fault is to be attributed not to the author of the thoughts, but to their translator. For those who are well versed in the Syriac language know that his words and tropes so excel that it is doubtful whether so great a power and elegance of his speech proceeds from these or from the profundity of his thought. Wherefore it is not so much the humility of his diction that should be admired, as it should be marvelled at how, through such cheapness of words, so great a benefit and profit is as it were poured forth upon readers." Concerning those works which we said were published at Cologne in the year 1547, Bellarmine pronounces in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers that they are more pious than learned. certain works not so much learned as pious and full of the Spirit. But that gentle and benign Spirit of God, as He describes Himself in the Book of Wisdom, does not need, in order to soften the hearts of men, either the devices of recondite learning or of elaborate eloquence, though He by no means commands that these be cast aside if they are present. But that neither the streams of divinely granted wisdom were lacking to Ephrem, nor the art of speaking correctly and ornately, drawn from the teaching of the same Divine Spirit, is attested by St. Gregory of Nyssa and others below.
[31] Endowed, then, with this learning, teaching all who came to see him, He obtains knowledge of the Greek language through the prayers of St. Basil. as Vincent writes, book 17, chapter 87, for many years, or edifying them, as Palladius puts it; in order that he might benefit more people, he obtained proficiency in the Greek language through the prayers of St. Basil, as we have related above from the Menologium of the Emperor Basil. Whence it follows, as Combefis has noted, that this grace endured in him and was not conferred merely for that one conversation with St. Basil. Baronius weakens the credibility of this matter, volume 4, at the year 370, number 56, with two principal arguments: the first being that Ephrem himself says nothing about it; the second, that Ephrem attests that Basil spoke to him through an interpreter. At first, of course, an interpreter was needed. But what wonder if Ephrem, who eagerly seized every opportunity to humble himself, kept silent about that which he saw would redound somewhat to his own glory? He also passed over in silence other things which Gregory of Nyssa attests happened during that meeting with Basil.
[32] Ephrem himself describes that meeting thus in his Encomium of St. Basil: "When, therefore, the Lord, an occasion of showing mercy presenting itself, was moved with compassion over me in a certain city, there I heard a voice saying to me: 'Arise, O Ephrem, and eat thoughts and reflections.' To which I answered in great distress: 'Whence shall I eat, Lord?' And He said to me: sent to him by divine command, 'Behold, in My house there is a splendid and magnificent vessel, which will supply you with food.' Greatly marvelling at these words, I arose and came to the temple of the Most High: and when I had gradually ascended to the vestibule and had looked with pious desire toward the entrance, I saw in the holy of holies a vessel of election, magnificently spread out before the flock of sheep, adorned and distinguished with words full of majesty, and the eyes of all fixed upon it. I saw the temple animated by the Spirit proceeding from him, he explains allegorically what he saw; and his compassion especially for widows and orphans. I saw there beside him streams of tears flowing like a river, and a fleece of life diffusing golden rays, as it were, to all; and the Pastor himself, on the wings of the Spirit, lifting up prayers on high for us, and drawing out the thread of his oration. I saw the Church adorned by him, and his beloved bride most fittingly composed. I perceived proceeding from him the doctrine of Paul, the law of the Gospels, and the reverence of the mysteries. I perceived there a beneficial and salutary discourse, faithfully raising itself up to heaven itself: and, to embrace the matter briefly, that entire assembly radiant with the splendors of grace. And when all these things were thus devoutly blossoming from the chosen vessel of the kingdom, I praised the wise and benign Lord, who thus glorifies those who glorify Him. When, moreover, the sermon was finished, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit he perceived that I was present. And taking care to summon my lowly self, he asked me through an interpreter, saying: 'Are you that Ephrem who has excellently bowed his neck beneath the yoke of the saving word?' recognized by him and kindly received: And answering, I said: 'I am that Ephrem who has cut himself off from the heavenly course.' And when he had taken hold of me, he greeted me with his holy kiss; and he spread a table with the feasts of his wise and holy and faithful soul, furnished not with corruptible dishes, but replete with immortal reflections."
[33] See how he wraps in allegorical circumlocutions what others narrate more splendidly as things seen and done by him! As for the matter of the Greek language, he either completely conceals it in silence, or revealed it elsewhere; he either keeps silent about this gift, for he did not think that everything needed to be explained in that one discourse. For he also expounded in another oration what he had learned from St. Basil concerning the Forty Martyrs: perhaps he also committed to writing this very matter of the gift of the Greek language or elsewhere, in some other place. Do not the following words from the same Encomium of Basil, a little before the middle, seem to point to this? or obscurely indicates it: "And taking from me the greenness and unripeness of my speech, he seized me with emulation and plunged me into the cups of his doctrine." Moreover, the fact that in chapter 10, On the text "Attend to yourself," he cites the Life of St. Anthony written by Athanasius, leads Vossius to suspect that he had read it in Greek.
[34] Peter de Natali, book 3, chapter 70, writes thus: "There exists a book On the Holy Spirit, which he translated from the Syriac language into Greek." St. Jerome says he read this and he did not himself translate the book On the Holy Spirit into Greek. noted the acuteness of Ephrem's genius even in the translation. St. Jerome does not say that this book was translated by Ephrem himself, but by "someone," from the Syriac language, as was stated in number 26.
Section V. The friendship of St. Ephrem with other Saints.
[35] Although in every class of men, similarity of character attracts and draws men to friendship, He has many saintly friends: yet holy men far more quickly and closely embrace the friendships of those like themselves, the Holy Spirit — who is the fount of honorable benevolence — swiftly reconciling them to one another. By this same principle St. Ephrem also formed his friendships. Besides the already mentioned St. Basil, and the disciples — most like their Master — named below in his Testament, namely Abban, Abraham, Maran, Simon, and Zenobius, we shall here mention two who were illustrious for holiness and bound to him by a firm bond of intimacy.
[36] among them St. Julian, The first is St. Julian, whose life, written by Ephrem himself, we shall give on the 9th of June, as Sozomen, book 3, chapter 13, attests in these words: "During the same period, near Edessa, Julian practiced the most exact form of monastic discipline: who, as though without a body, followed such a plan and manner of life that he seemed to lack flesh and to consist of bones and skin alone. Wherefore Ephrem, the Syrian writer, composed a treatise on his life." (whose Life he wrote) Somewhat more clearly Nicephorus, book 9, chapter 15: "At that time also near Edessa, Julian the Great practiced philosophy with a manner of life more exact and resembling that of the Angels: whose continence was so great that he seemed to have bones devoid of flesh bound tight by skin. Ephrem the Syrian also deemed it necessary to write his life."
[37] This Life was published in Latin by Gerardus Vossius in volume 3 of the Works of St. Ephrem, in which the following passages illustrate their friendship: "Blessed Julian, mortifying in himself worldly desires, as much as the monastic manner of life required, resided in his cell: and near his cell, my cell also was situated; for we were both of the same congregation. he visits often, He would come therefore to my cell, and I in turn would go to him: for I profited from the conversation and company of the man; and profits from his conversation: and I marvelled when I saw such knowledge in a barbarian man, one who had come from the western regions: and I glorified God, who does not wish anyone to perish, but to forgive all through repentance."
[38] And after some intervening matter: "When the bell for the Synaxis was heard, he strove to arrive before all the other Brethren. And he stood in the Synaxis without any distraction of the eyes, as though he were standing before the very tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ. One day I said to him: 'Who, I pray, is ruining these books? he admonishes him not to ruin the sacred books with tears: For wherever the words GOD, or LORD, or JESUS CHRIST, or SAVIOR were written, the letters are found to be erased.' The blessed man said to me: 'I shall hide nothing at all from you. The sinful woman, approaching the Savior, bathed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head: and I, wherever I find the name of my God written, bathe it with my tears; so that I too may receive from Him the remission of sins.' And I said to him graciously: 'May God, who is kind and merciful, accept your good intention; but spare the books, I pray.' But he said: 'My heart is not watered unless I weep before the Lord my God.' Moreover, he conducted himself ardently in religion and exercised himself for more than twenty-five years: and meanwhile he died in the Lord, in obedience and in the persecution which he suffered, having been made worthy of eternal blessedness. For 'Blessed,' says Christ in the Gospel, 'are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' he grieves at his death: 'Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Tears indeed fall from my eyes at the separation and parting from this man."
[39] Moreover, St. Abraham the Hermit, who is venerated on the 16th of March, was most closely united to St. Ephrem, as was St. Mary, the daughter of Abraham's brother, whose Life Ephrem likewise wrote, which is extant in volume 3 of his Works and was published by our Rosweydus in book 1 of the Lives of the Fathers. St. Abraham We think this is a different person from the Abraham who is numbered among Ephrem's disciples in his Testament; (distinct from Abraham the disciple) for the latter survived Ephrem, whereas the former had died many years before him, since Ephrem describes the death of both Abraham and Mary — who survived her uncle by five years — and then adds: "Woe is me, beloved, for these have fallen asleep and have gone to the Lord with all confidence: whose minds were bound up in no worldly affairs whatsoever, but only in the love of the Lord. But I have remained, by my own will, unprepared and unready, and behold winter has overtaken me, and an endless tempest shall find me naked and stripped, without the perfection of good works."
[40] That both were the dearest friends of Ephrem is clear from the same Life, where Mary, having fallen into fornication, speaks thus: "Where is the teaching of my most holy uncle? Where are the admonitions of his companion Ephrem? companion, who used to teach me to persevere in my virginity, exhorting me he exhorts his niece to the care of chastity to keep my soul undefiled for the immortal bridegroom. 'For your bridegroom,' they would say, 'is holy and jealous.'" Abraham himself, when he had come, in military garb — lest she recognize him and take flight out of shame — to his niece, who was living as a harlot in a certain inn, at last dropping his disguise, addresses her thus: "My daughter Mary, do you not know me? My very own flesh, was it not I who nourished you? What has happened to you, my daughter? Who has killed you? Where is that angelic habit which you had, my daughter? Where is your continence? Where are your tears? Where your vigils? Where your sleeping on the ground? From the heights of heaven to this pit, how have you fallen, my daughter? Why, when you sinned, did you not tell me? Did you not report it to me? And I certainly would have done penance for you, together with my dearest Ephrem." And shortly after, to raise her to hope, he says: "Upon me be your iniquity, my daughter. Let God require this sin from my hands. and prays for her when she has fallen: Only hear me and come, let us go to our place. For behold, your dearest Ephrem also grieves exceedingly for you and earnestly beseeches the Lord on your behalf."
[41] Not all, however, with whom he had formed friendships preserved them faithfully. deserted by some of his own; Concerning these, Ephrem himself says in his Testament, chapter 1, number 2: "But you, Brethren, do not marvel at certain persons who, having embraced the discipline of obedience, withdrew from me." And in chapter 5, numbers 22 and 23, he curses the apostate Paulonas and Arouandran, who, having abandoned the pursuit of piety, were spreading heresies.
[42] Paulinus, of a keen and ambitious temperament, But this Paulonas, who had departed from his Master while he was still alive, seems to have been a different person from Paulinus, concerning whom Gennadius, in his work On Illustrious Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 3, writes thus: "Paulinus, a Priest, a disciple of Blessed Ephrem the Deacon, a man of very keen intellect and learned in the Divine Scriptures. While his Master lived, he was distinguished among Ecclesiastical Doctors, and especially as an extemporaneous preacher: but after the latter's death, out of love of primacy and fame, separating himself from the Church, he wrote many things contrary to the faith. To him, Blessed Ephrem, when about to die, is said to have spoken as he stood beside him: 'See to it, Paulinus, that you do not submit to your own thoughts and become puffed up. But when you think you have comprehended God perfectly, believe that you have not even understood.' he foresees his future fall. For he had sensed that Paulinus was investigating novelties from his studies or discourses and striving to extend his understanding of heresies into the boundless: wherefore he frequently called him a 'new Bardesanes.'" Honorius of Autun, however, calls him Paulonas, as do the manuscripts cited by Suffridus Petrus.
Section VI. The sources of compunction in St. Ephrem.
[43] St. Ephrem opens many and abundant sources of compunction, to be aroused in himself and in others. We shall point out only two here. The first flows from the consideration of human affairs and from an interior address of God. Thus he himself writes in his work On the Fear of the Soul, volume 1: "I, Ephrem, a sinner, sluggish and lazy in the spiritual combat, in which I am constantly conquered because of my negligence and torpor of soul, wish to recount to you, strenuous fighters and most beloved Brethren of God, the great fear and trembling of my soul, reflecting on the vanity of the world, which on a certain day invaded me, wretched and distracted, slow and idle as I was. I was sitting alone in a certain quiet and elevated place, and was revolving in my mind the vain cares, tumults, and disturbances of this life. And weeping I said: 'How does this life of ours flee like a shadow, and pass by like a most swift runner, and wither like a morning flower!' And again, with grief and groaning: 'How does this age pass away,' I said, 'while we are distracted by idleness and useless things and thoughts, and looking up to heaven, is admonished by God concerning his negligence: we know not.' While I pondered these things with myself, suddenly I raised my eyes to heaven, and almost beside myself, struck with great fear, I beheld with the eyes of my heart the Lord my God seated in supreme glory, and I heard Him thus addressing my soul: 'Why, O soul, do you despise your heavenly bridal chamber, full of the light of glory? Why, O soul, My bride, do you hate Me, your immaculate and immortal bridegroom? Why, O soul, do you scorn those goods which I have prepared for you in the light of life?'"
[44] And shortly after: "At these words, dearest Brethren, standing in that hour before the Lord, I trembled violently and was terrified: stricken with terror, he laments: especially when I perceived those formidable words of the Lord and the very great confusion and disturbance of my soul. Wherefore my soul fainted with fear and confusion: and I considered where I might hide myself, since I could not bear such ignominy; and I said to myself: 'Come, you mountains, and cover me, a sinful, impious wretch.' And with bowed head, confused, I began in a loud voice to bewail myself lamentably, saying: 'Why did I come forth from my mother's womb, only to provoke my Lord, who is holy and good and merciful? Why have I scorned the conception in my mother's womb, and the growth of my body, and the heavenly gifts and the holy remedies of Your grace, which You have given, Lord?' Yet weeping, I fell prostrate, and with lamentation and grief of heart, shedding tears, I prayed and cried out: 'Hear, Lord, my weeping, and receive the words of my supplication, which I, a sinner, stricken with fear, speak before You, most clement, most gentle, and most merciful Lord.'"
[45] The memory of this vision makes him shudder: And again, after a brief interval: "As often as there comes to my mind that day and hour, in which this fear suddenly invaded me, I shudder all over, I weep, and I groan. Then again I suddenly forget everything at once — both prayers and tears and fear, and the space of penance granted to me by the generosity of divine grace. he suffers spiritual dryness; But whence comes this hardness and negligence? Whence such forgetfulness? Whence do I so suddenly become shameless and devoid of fear, haughty and wrathful; to such a degree that neither the fear of God nor the future judgment is before my eyes? Is God unjust? Does He dissemble or fail to behold my works? God forbid. I beseech and implore all of you, friends of God and my dearest Brethren, that you be willing to intercede on behalf of me, a sinful and least man, with God, who is merciful and most kind. The things that have happened to me I have disclosed to you, for this very reason: that through you I may obtain mercy from God."
[46] Ephrem wrote these things when already advanced in years, as Vossius conjectures from these words of his: as he confessed in old age: "May Your grace, which bore the sins of my youth, now also bear the errors of my old age." When, however, that vision — or, as Vossius considers it, contemplation — befell him, he does not explain: it is probable that it occurred much earlier. The same Ephrem, in his Discourse on Compunction, opens another source of this gift — the sight of heaven and the recollection of the Divine Judgment — writing thus:
[47] "Setting out from the blessed city of Edessa, rising one day at dawn, looking up to heaven, I went out with two Brethren: and raising my eyes to heaven, I beheld it, resembling a mirror, bright and adorned with stars, and shining with glory upon the earth. And I, with admiration, silently revolving these things within myself, said: 'If these things shine with such beauty, the just and holy who obey the Divine will, in that hour when the Lord shall come to judge, how much more shall they shine in the glory of the Savior with ineffable light!' But suddenly there came into my memory mindful of the judgment, that terrible coming of Christ. Wherefore all my bones trembled, and I shuddered in both body and soul. And thus shaken and disturbed, with great grief of heart I began to weep, he sheds tears, and groaning I said: 'How shall I, a sinner, be found in that terrible and dreadful hour? How shall I then stand before the tribunal of the fearsome Judge? How shall I, proud and haughty, stand together with the just and the perfect?'"
[48] After much more said to this effect, he adds: "Then those two Brethren who were with me, themselves also weeping, interrupted me with these words: and reveals to others the cause of his tears. 'Why do you weep so bitterly, Father?' And I said to them: 'I bewail my own torpor, dearest sons. For although God, who is thrice blessed, has granted us the light of knowledge, I daily try to repel and extinguish it. For if I had fulfilled the commandments of the Divine will, I would indeed be blessed in that hour; and not I alone, but all who obey His will. Therefore, Brethren, we shall have absolutely no excuse there, since we all sin knowingly and willingly. Let us therefore all diligently consider the Divine providence and generosity toward us, and how great are the things that God in His goodness daily bestows upon us.'"
OUR HOLY FATHER EPHREM'S
NARRATIVE TO THE MONKS
CONCERNING HIS CONVERSION.
Translated and annotated by Gerardus Vossius.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
By an Anonymous author, from the works of St. Ephrem.
CHAPTER I.
Ephrem and two fellow captives, falsely accused of a crime, though he was truly guilty of another.
The holy Abbot Ephrem, when the Brethren came to him, narrated about himself for their edification, saying:
[1] When I was still a boy, I was of unruly disposition. Ephrem kills a cow by chasing it; One day, therefore, my parents sent me out to the suburbs beyond the city: and while I was going, I came upon a cow along the road in the middle of a forest, carrying a calf in her womb, grazing; and it was the cow of a certain poor man. Taking up stones, I began to chase the cow through the forest. And I pursued her so relentlessly with stones, until deep into the evening (for she was near to giving birth), that she fell to the ground, deep in the interior of the forest, and at last gave a final kick: and so, leaving her dead, I departed, and by night the wild beasts devoured her. And I encountered in the same forest the poor man whose cow she was, searching for her: who asked me: he mocks the old man who was seeking it: "Son, have you not often come across a pregnant cow in this forest?" But I not only did not answer him, but even heaped insults and injuries upon him with the utmost insolence.
[2] It happened, moreover, after a month of days, that my parents again sent me to the suburbs: spending the night with shepherds, When therefore I set out, evening began to fall upon me while I was still on the road. And shepherds of sheep found me in the forest and said to me: "Brother, where are you going at this hour?" To whom I said: "My parents sent me to the suburbs, and I am on my way there." But they said: "The day is already declining and evening approaches; therefore turn aside here to us, and rest with us; in the morning you will finish the rest of the journey." When therefore I turned aside and stayed with them, during that night wild beasts broke into the fold, scattering the flock through the forest. And the owners of the flock seized me, charging that I had brought in thieves who had attacked and scattered the flock of sheep. When I denied it and swore that no fault lay with me, they did not believe me, when the flock was scattered by wolves, he was accused as a leader of thieves but persisted in saying that I had stolen and scattered their sheep. At last, therefore, they bound my arm and handed me over to the Magistrate, who ordered me to be cast into prison: where I found two men in chains, one of whom was falsely accused of murder, the other of adultery.
[3] he is cast into prison. I spent forty days in prison: after which, while I was sleeping, a certain young man of terrible aspect stood beside me, speaking to me in a gentle voice: "Ephrem, what are you doing in this prison?" To whom I said: "Lord, I am so struck by your appearance that all my strength fails me." But the young man said to me: "Do not be afraid, but tell me your case." Taking greater confidence therefore from his gentle words, I said to him with many tears: from an Angel he learns that he suffers this for his former crime: "Lord, Lord, I was sent by my parents to the suburbs, and evening overtook me on the way; and shepherds found me and kept me with them: and that same night wild beasts broke into the fold and scattered the entire flock. The owners of the sheep seized me, charging that I had brought in thieves who attacked and scattered their flock of sheep: wherefore they bound me and handed me over to the Magistrate. But I am innocent, Lord, and they have unjustly slandered me." And he, smiling, said: "I too know that you are free from blame as regards this matter, and that it is pure slander. Yet I know what you did a few days ago — how you chased the poor man's cow with stones and killed it. Understand therefore that there is no injustice with God: but the judgments of the Lord are a great deep. Psalm 35:7. And that you may know that these men also, who are detained with you in prison, are without fault in the matter for which they have been accused, one fellow captive was falsely accused of murder, and cast into chains — yet question them, and you will understand that they are not untimely detained in these bonds: so that you may know that the Lord is just and has loved justice." Psalm 10:8. And having said this, the young man who appeared to me vanished.
[4] When morning came, I called to me the men who were with me in prison, and said to them: "Brethren, for what reason have you been shut up in this prison?" One of them answered: "I am charged with the crime of murder, but I am innocent of this fault." And the other said: "I am detained on account of adultery, falsely accused of the crime, and I am free of this charge." But I said to them plainly: "But what are the serious sins you have committed, on account of which Providence has allowed you to be entangled in these charges and accusations?" The one who was detained for murder said: "I will truly declare my sin to you. A few days ago I was crossing the bridge of the river outside the city; and two other men were coming after me, between whom a quarrel arose, and it came even to blows, and when one had overpowered the other, he threw him from the bridge down into the river, he had previously refused to help a drowning man: and departed. And when I was crossing, I could have extended my hand to him and pulled him out of the river, so that he would not die: but though he cried out and implored my help with many tears, that I should reach out my hand to him, I would not, but left him and went away. And when he had struggled long and hard and could not get out of the water, the current of the river carried him away and he perished, while I stood by and watched. This is my sin, and I know for certain that on account of it God has allowed me to be pressed by false charges and cast into this prison: for there is no injustice with God." 2 Chronicles 19:7.
[5] And the other, who was accused of adultery, said: "Shall I too recount my sin? About two years ago, a thing of this sort happened: there were two brothers, soldiers, who had received a great inheritance from their parents, and since they had not yet divided it between themselves, their widowed sister was demanding the portion that belonged to her. But the brothers, unwilling to give her anything, the other falsely accused of adultery, sought a pretext by which they might eject her from the possession of her patrimony: and accordingly both strove to overwhelm their own sister with slanders, alleging that she had lived in fornication, and claiming to have witnesses of the fact. But the girl affirmed with an oath he had previously been a false witness of adultery against an innocent woman: that she was not conscious of the charge brought against her. When they insisted they would prove the matter, it was agreed between them, in the presence of witnesses, that if they convicted her of fornication, she should forthwith be excluded from the inheritance and patrimony of her father's goods. Both brothers therefore came to me, asking that I present myself before their sister and, together with them, press and convict her by my testimony of fornication actually committed by her, and that I was privy to it, so that they might disinherit her of her father's goods and patrimony; 'and we will give you,' they said, 'fifty coins.' And I, accepting the terms, presented myself before the girl, and asserted that I truly knew for a fact that she had committed fornication, though it was not true: and so we ejected her from her father's goods and declared her disinherited of her patrimony. And this is the sin which I committed. But of the adultery of which I have recently been accused, and for which I am detained in this prison, I am not guilty."
[6] And both said to me: "But you, brother, to these Ephrem relates the crime falsely imputed to him, for what reason have you been cast into this prison?" And I said to them: "Two months ago my parents sent me to the suburbs outside the city, and because the day was already declining toward evening while I was still on the road, the shepherds detained me, urging me to stay with them. But during that night wolves attacked the sheep and scattered the entire flock. The owners, alleging that I had hired thieves to seize and scatter the sheep of their flock, seized me, bound me, and handed me over to the Judge: and this is the reason I am detained in this prison." But the men said to me: "Did you yourself not perhaps commit some offense at some time, on account of which Divine Providence permitted you to fall into such danger and be thrust into this prison?" To whom I said: "I will tell you the very truth, and say what I did: When I was very unstable and dissolute through my sins, and another, true crime, he recounts. one day I was sent to our suburbs by my parents: and on the way I came upon a certain pregnant cow in the pastures of a forest, and taking up stones I began to chase her through the forest, and I pursued her so long with stones until evening that I drove her into the deeper recesses of the forest: and since she was near to giving birth, she fell from running and breathed her last, kicking her feet. She was the cow of a certain poor man, and when I saw she was already dead, I turned back and met on the road the poor man whose cow she was, weeping and searching for her. And when he asked me whether I had seen his pregnant cow anywhere, I not only did not answer, but heaped upon him a great many insults: and this is the sin which I committed."
NotesCHAPTER II.
His companions are acquitted after examination; Ephrem's case is deferred.
[7] On the following day, when the Judge was seated at his tribunal, they set before him a tripassalum, his companions are tortured: and all other kinds of instruments of torture: and he ordered us to be subjected to questioning. The officers therefore entered the prison, and bound us in iron restraints and tied over our whole body, and presented us before the Judge. When the Magistrate ordered the prisoners to be brought forward, they first stripped the one who had been accused of murder and brought him into the midst of all, bound with an iron chain. And when the Magistrate questioned him to confess the truth before he was subjected to torture, and how he had committed that murder, he steadfastly declared himself free of guilt and entirely innocent of the charge. Whereupon the Judge ordered him to be subjected to torture. When, however, he had been on the rack for a long time and his innocence had become apparent, the Magistrate ordered him to be released. Then he commanded the second to be brought forward, who had been charged with the crime of adultery; and they also stripped him of his garments, changed his clothes, and brought him into the midst. Whereupon a great fear and trembling invaded me, especially since I was certain that I too would assuredly be brought into the midst, just as the others had been. Whereupon I wept and trembled, and my spirits sank with exceeding fear. Ephrem weeps and trembles: But the bystanders among the people and the officers, seeing me both trembling and weeping, mocked me, saying: "Why do you weep, boy? When you were committing your crime, you were not afraid; now you want to cry, when it profits nothing? Do not be afraid. Very soon you too will be brought out into the midst." And while I heard these words, my soul melted still more within me.
[8] When the second had been questioned and found innocent, the Magistrate decided that he should be acquitted; meanwhile I was bound in iron chains, the others dismissed, he is led back to prison: and by his order was thrust into the prison; where, alone, I spent another forty days: and the officers brought into the same prison three other men in chains, whom they bound in fetters and departed. And I remained with those men in the prison another thirty days. And it happened again that the one who had appeared to me before stood beside me in my sleep, and said to me: "What is this, Ephrem? Did you question those men whom you found in prison?" And I said to him: "Yes indeed, Lord," and I related to him all the things that the men had told me. he is instructed again by the Angel: And he said to me: "You see the just judgment of God. And that you may know who those three are who are today shut up in prison with you: two of them are the ones who falsely accused their own sister of fornication and thus despoiled her of her paternal inheritance, as they also recounted to you. And the other is the one who threw a man into the river, where he also perished, as was related to you by the same man": and saying this, he departed from me.
[9] When morning had come, I called to me those three men who were detained with me in the same prison, and asked them to tell me truly the reason for which they had been cast into this prison. And the two brothers said to me: "Believe us, Lord Brother, we are detained on account of our sins; the one as though he had committed murder, the other as though he had committed adultery, but we are both innocent." And the third said: "I too am detained here on account of my sins for a murder committed." And I said to them: "Are you truly guilty of murders, or are you falsely accused?" And they said to me: the other three reveal to him their former crimes, "Absolutely, Lord Brother, it is on account of our sins: but we are found innocent of that which we have been accused." And I, wishing to ascertain whether the things which the one who had appeared to me in my sleep had said were true, said: "Brethren, had you not committed certain other crimes beforehand, so that by just judgment you finally fell into these grave accusations?" And the two brothers said: "Believe us, brother, we have one widowed sister, very pious and God-fearing, whom, desiring to despoil of her paternal inheritance, we falsely accused of the crime of adultery: and we had also suborned a false witness against our sister, and so deprived her of her inheritance." And the other said: and understanding the earlier judgment, they praise God. "I was passing by a river with another man; and while we were crossing the bridge, a quarrel arising between us, I threw him from the height of the bridge into the river, and he perished." And I recounted to them all the things that had happened to me; and what I had learned about the two men found in the prison, of whom one had indeed given false testimony against his own sister, and the other had not extended his hand to the man whom he had thrown into the river, to save him from dying, when he could have rescued him from the water. When those men heard these things, they were seized with great fear, and looked up in wonder at the just judgment of God, and praised Him together, saying: "There is one God, who alone works wonders." Psalm 71:18. And so we began to weep, awaiting the outcome with great anxiety.
NotesCHAPTER III.
The other three being condemned, his case is again deferred: at length acquitted, he becomes a monk.
[10] On the following day, therefore, when the Judge was seated publicly at his tribunal before the people, and all the instruments of torture had been set before him again, he ordered us to be brought to examination. When the torturers entered the prison, he is presented to the Judge a third time: iron chains were placed upon our necks, and they dragged us through the middle of the city to present us before the Judge. And the whole city flocked together to witness the spectacle. Whereupon the Judge ordered the two brothers to be stripped and brought into the midst: and the lictors, having undressed and prepared them, brought them to examination; placing each of us before those who were already being subjected to torture. And I, seeing such a horror, when his companions confessed their crimes under examination, wept. And the officers said to me: "Believe us, boy," they said, "although you escaped unharmed the other time, this time you will not escape so easily; but these tortures which you see, today you will be compelled to experience." And I, hearing and seeing these things, and were condemned, was violently dismayed in spirit and terrified. By order of the Judge, the two brothers were hung upon the wheel: and after they had been tortured for several hours, they at last confessed also the fraud and wrong which they had inflicted upon their own sister, and that they were both guilty of adultery and murder. The Judge then pronounced sentence against them, that their right hand be cut off and that they be placed upon the gibbet. And when sentence had been passed on them, the Judge ordered the other man also to be subjected to questioning: who was brought forward naked, ordered to be hung upon the wheel and tortured, and after being suspended for some time and severely racked, he too confessed the murder which he had recently committed, and how he had thrown another man into the river, where he perished. And the Judge pronounced sentence against him, that both his hands be cut off and that he be placed upon the gibbet.
[11] When he had received his sentence, the Judge said: "Strip the young man, and bring him too into the midst." And the officers, stripping me of my clothes, dressed me in tattered rags, and brought me thus naked before the Judge. And I wept bitterly and called upon God, about to be tortured, he vows to become a monk, saying: "Lord Almighty, save me from this extremity, that I may be made worthy to become a monk and to serve You." The Magistrate then ordered his officers to stretch me out on four sides with straps and beat me with ox-sinew lashes. Whereupon the Assessor of the Magistrate said to him: "My lord, let him be reserved, if you please, for another hearing; for it is now time for the midday meal." And the Magistrate had me bound again in iron chains and led back to prison, where I spent alone another twenty-five days.
[12] the examination is deferred: And for a third time the young man who had appeared to me in my sleep showed himself and said to me: "What is it, O Ephrem? Are you now certain that God governs the world by just judgment, and that there is no injustice with Him?" And I said to him: "Yes indeed, Lord, I have been made more certain that the works of the Lord are wonderful and His ways unsearchable." And I began to beseech him with many tears, saying: "You have wrought this great justice with your servant, and in your vision you have consoled my weakness: have mercy on me, your servant, and bring me out of this prison, that I may be worthy to become a monk and to serve the Lord Christ." And he, with a smiling face, said to me: "You will be examined once more, and you shall be released." But I said again to him: "Lord, I dread the threats of the Judge and fear the blows." And he, again smiling, said to me: "You ought indeed to have been modest and not to have been thrust into this prison: but from the Angel he learns he will be freed: since through your intemperance you entered here, what can I do for you? Nevertheless, do not fear: you will not be subjected to much. Another Judge will come who will free you." And saying this, he departed.
[13] Meanwhile I remained in great anxiety, waiting to see what end my affairs would finally have. After five days, therefore, another Judge arrived, who had been on familiar terms in the household of my parents: the former Judge, upon receiving his successor, left me alone in prison, still in chains. The newly arrived Judge spent seven days in the city, and inquired of the Superintendent of the public prison whether any prisoners were being held in the prison. When he replied that a certain young man was being held in chains for a particular reason, on the eighth day the Judge ordered the case file to be produced: and sitting at his tribunal, he commanded me to be brought forward for examination. The officers, coming to the prison, placed iron chains upon my neck and publicly dragged me to judgment. When the Judge so ordered, they stripped me and covered me with tattered rags. he is presented to the new Judge: And thus they stood me in the midst and presented me to the Judge. And when the Judge saw me, he recognized me: nevertheless, out of the rigor of the law, he inquired further. And having already ascertained that I was detained on a false accusation, his innocence recognized, he is freed: he ordered me to be released. Then the officers loosed the chains with which I was bound, returned my garments, and dressed me in them, and let me go. And I, saved beyond expectation, immediately and without any delay ascended the mountain, he becomes a monk. to a great and venerable elder: at whose feet I fell prostrate, and having recounted to him all the things that had happened, he received me as a monk. I have recounted these things to you for your edification, Brethren: so that you also, hearing such things, may with one accord glorify God with me, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. To Him be honor and glory, for ever and ever, Amen.
NoteTHE CONFESSION AND SELF-REPROACH OF OUR HOLY FATHER EPHREM THE SYRIAN,
or the occasion of his conversion, translated by Gerardus Vossius in volume 3 of the Works.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
By the Author himself.
[1] Since, dearest Brethren, I seem to be of benefit to you in many things, I ought also to take useful counsel for my own soul. The reason for writing: his own progress. For it is absurd that he should waste away with hunger who shares his food with others; and it is shameful for me to perish of thirst, who supplies drink to the rest: which will assuredly happen unless I reprove my own conscience: for I know how much that will profit me in the future judgment.
[2] For when I was still living in the world, the enemy assailed me in my youth, and had nearly persuaded me that the things which happen in this life come about by chance and accident: and it befell me as it does a ship deprived of its rudder, with the helmsman standing in the prow; Ephrem as a young man thinks ill of Divine Providence: which either goes backward, or makes no progress, or is even capsized, unless it is relieved by some visitation or providence, whether through an Angel or through a man. This very thing happened to me, who was tossed about by the wandering of storms and did not foresee the dangers that threatened: when Divine goodness caused me, as I was wandering in the region of inner Mesopotamia, to fall in with a certain shepherd of sheep: who, upon asking me where I was heading, and I replying that I was going wherever my feet carried me, said to me: "If you will listen to me, young man, turn aside here to us, for the day is already declining toward evening." Moved by these words, I remained with him. But in the middle of the night wolves attacked the flock and scattered the sheep: while the shepherd, meanwhile, lay seized by deep sleep on account of his drunkenness. And the owners, arriving upon the scene, dragged me too as a guilty party to judgment. Brought before the tribunal, I defended myself he is cast into prison on a false charge, as are two others: and narrated the matter as it had happened. But meanwhile, after me, another man was brought in, caught (as they said) in adultery; but the woman had escaped. The Judge, deferring the matter, ordered both of us to be thrust into the same prison: in which we found a certain farmer detained for murder. But neither was the man brought in with me an adulterer, nor was this farmer a murderer: just as neither had I been a thief and rustler of sheep. The corpse, however, was being kept in another house and custody on account of the farmer, and the shepherd on account of me, and the husband on account of the alleged adulterer.
[3] After spending seven days there, on the eighth day I beheld in my sleep someone addressing me thus: "Cultivate piety, and you will understand Divine Providence. Consider with yourself what you have thought and done; from an Angel he learns that his error is being punished, and from your own experience you will know that none of you suffer unjustly: yet neither will the actual perpetrators of the crimes escape with impunity." Waking from sleep, therefore, I kept turning over in my memory what I had seen in the vision: and having traced my fall and error, I discovered that in the field of that region where I had been captured, I had, spurred by a certain malice, driven out a poor stranger's cow from her place and stall in the middle of the night: and an earlier crime: and she, weakened by the cold and carrying a calf, was torn apart by a beast that came upon her there. When, therefore, I had recounted my dream and its cause to those who were with me, they too, moved and admonished, began to narrate what had happened to them: and the farmer, beginning before the others, said: "I, the fellow prisoners confess the same about themselves: while I watched a man drowning in the river, whom I could have helped, neglected to extend a helping hand." And the citizen had falsely charged with his testimony the woman who was accused by slander. "For this woman," he said, "was a widow, and her brothers, bringing this charge against her, despoiled her of her paternal inheritance: and they paid me the agreed-upon reward."
[4] At these words and accounts, I began to feel compunction and to come to my senses: and to understand that we were deservedly paying the penalty. For if I had been alone, I might perhaps have considered it to have happened by chance and accident; but there were three of us detained together. There was, moreover, a fourth unjust man, who was neither related by blood to those who had been wronged, nor had he even been aware of their situation: since neither I nor my companions, to whom I described his appearance and features, had ever seen him before. Then, falling asleep again, I beheld the same figure speaking thus: "Tomorrow you will also see those he is taught in a dream the outcome of the next day's trial, who were wronged by you; and the recompense for your slander and false accusation." Waking up, I remained deep in thought. And my companions said to me: "Why are you so sad?" To whom I explained the cause, but I feared the outcome of the matter; and I had already consigned to oblivion those earlier thoughts about chance and fortune. And they were gripped by great anxiety along with me.
[5] When therefore that night had passed, we were brought before the Judge, and suddenly five prisoners were brought before him. And so those who were with me, having received many blows, were thrust back into custody; while I was left there. Then two men were first brought to trial; and these were the brothers of that widow who had been despoiled by them through slander of her paternal inheritance; and one of them had been caught in murder, the other in adultery. When they had confessed these crimes, they were compelled through torture to confess also other crimes they had committed. [the murderer confessing also the adultery falsely imputed to one of the former prisoners,] The murderer therefore confessed that at a certain time, while doing business in the city, he had had an affair with a certain woman (and this was the very woman on whose account one of those who had been detained with me was being held in custody); and when asked how he had escaped, he said: "It happened that, while we were being watched, a certain neighbor of the adulteress came to her by another way, as though to borrow something from her: and when she had given it, after I had already let myself down through the window, she asked him to let himself down through the same window, pretending that creditors were coming to seize her: and when he was trying to do this, he was immediately caught by the woman's husband, while we meanwhile escaped." To this the Judge said: "Where the adulterer confessing the murder of which another was accused; is the woman?" And when the man had indicated the place, he was ordered to be kept in custody until the woman's arrival.
The other brother, besides the adultery of which he had been convicted, also confessed to having killed a man — namely, the one whose murder had been charged against the farmer who was detained with me. He said that the dead man was the husband of the woman who had fallen in love with him. "For when," he said, "he was visiting his field in the afternoon, I approached under the pretext of a friendly greeting, immediately killed him, and fled. And when his relatives had come out at the cry of the slain man, they found and saw no one except a certain rustic, whom, exhausted from great labor and seized by sleep, they apprehended as the murderer and cast into chains." When he had recounted these things and had likewise indicated the place and name of the woman, he was forthwith taken off to prison.
[6] And the three remaining prisoners were also brought forward, of whom one was accused of having burned crops: the other two, of having been accessories and accomplices to a murder. But having received only a few blows, since they confessed nothing, they were led back to prison: he is led back to prison, with them and three others: for the Judge had heard that his successor was approaching. And I, without any investigation of my case, went back with them. We were therefore all held in the same custody. And the Judge who was arriving as successor was from our homeland: but for a long time I did not know who he was or where he was from. Meanwhile, since we were given a somewhat greater space of time and opportunity for rest, we formed a friendship. And when the earlier prisoners had already become more cheerful and had recounted to the others what had happened, they all looked to me as a pious and religious man. these were falsely captured on a charge, And the brothers of that widow, having recognized the man who had testified against her, were amazed. And they all asked me whether I could by any means announce something favorable and good to them. But though I remained there many days, I no longer saw the one who had appeared to me in my dreams. Whom I nevertheless at last beheld again at the end of those days, from the Angel he learns that the guilty will pay the penalty, addressing me thus: "Behold, these three, who are also guilty of other crimes, will now pay just penalties." When I had told them this, two of them confessed that they had been accessories to the crime of a certain thief: who, having killed a man on account of a vineyard adjacent to his own property, which they themselves confess: "we gave him testimony that this vineyard was his own, and that the man had not been slain by him, but had fallen to his death from a cliff." And the other, the third, related that he, impelled by anger, had against his will thrown a man from a roof, from which fall the man had died.
[7] Afterwards I again beheld in my sleep the figure telling me these things: "Tomorrow you will be freed, he learns that he is to be freed the next day. and the rest will undergo just judgment: be faithful, therefore, and declare the Divine Providence." On the following day, therefore, the Judge, sitting at his tribunal, held an examination of us all, and having investigated what had already been done, and having questioned the women who were present and ready, and having called fair witnesses; the Judge acquitted the innocent — namely, the farmer and the one who had been falsely accused of adultery. But the women he subjected to torture, to determine whether they were found liable for any other crimes as well: and he discovered that one of them, incited by hatred of the man who had exposed her adulterer, had set fire to his goods: [when the perpetrators of the crimes falsely imputed to the innocent were discovered,] and from that fire and the devastation of the field, when a certain man was fleeing too close by, he was seized as its perpetrator: and this man was with us; whom also the Judge, after examination, acquitted and released because he found him innocent. And the other adulteress, since she was in the same village where those two had been arrested who were said to have been accomplices in committing a murder, openly confessed the entire matter as it had occurred. "The man who was killed," she said, "was slain by the other brother of that widow (who was my lover), when he had been caught committing adultery with me in my house, and was thrown into the crossroads: and when a crowd gathered, and two men were pursuing someone from whom a goat had been stolen, others who saw them, supposing them to be fleeing because they had committed the murder, seized them and handed them over to prison." The Judge, having carefully investigated their names, family, and who and what sort of persons they were, and having ascertained the whole matter more clearly, those were acquitted, freed those who were innocent. Now these five were: the farmer, the one who had been falsely accused of adultery, and the three last-mentioned. the rest were thrown to the beasts. And the two brothers, and those wicked women along with them, he ordered to be torn apart by wild beasts.
[8] Then the Judge also had me brought into the midst, and although he was bound to me by goodwill, he nevertheless wished to learn from me in due order how the matter of the sheep had gone: and when I had related to him what had truly happened, Ephrem himself is also acquitted: and he had recognized me by my voice and name (for he had been on familiar terms with my parents), he held an inquiry about the shepherd, and having had the shepherd scourged, and the truth ascertained, after approximately seventy days, he acquitted and freed me from the accusation and the charge that had been brought against me. Then on the following night I beheld in my sleep a man saying to me: "Return to your place, and do penance for your iniquity, commanded by the Angel, he does penance: and know for certain that there is one Eye that surveys all things": and he threatened me sternly and departed, whom from that day to this I have seen no more. Anxious, therefore, and bathed in many tears, I departed from that place, not knowing whether I had satisfied God. Wherefore I beseech the prayers of all to help me: for the gravest and most incurable wound has befallen me. I am not puffed up by visions, but I am tormented and distressed by my impious thoughts. An Angel appeared also to Pharaoh, foretelling the future: but the prophecy did not change his mind and purpose. he implores the prayers of others. And Christ says to those who prophesied in His name: "I know you not, you workers of iniquity." Luke 13:27 I know that I have seen true things, and I have experienced them in reality: but my great offense against God tortures me beyond measure; for he who says that all things happen by chance and accident abolishes the Divinity. This I thought — I do not deny it: I have come to my senses; but whether I have appeased God, I do not know. I have preached about Him: but whether my words have been pleasing and acceptable to Him, I know not. I have written about Providence: but whether my writings have pleased God, I am ignorant. And after much intervening matter.
[9] On every side, therefore, Brethren, I am pressed by distress, and I turn to my own conscience. If I should again act impiously, woe to me: if I should conduct myself shamelessly and arrogantly, I fear lest darkness overwhelm me. I know that Nebuchadnezzar also was received back after he had done penance: but his defense and excuse were both ignorance and power — and I lack both these excuses. I had already been made a partaker of grace: I had been instructed about Christ by my fathers: those who had begotten me according to the flesh His parents were Confessors, had handed down to me the fear of the Lord: I had seen neighbors devoted to piety; I had heard of many who had suffered various things for Christ: my parents had confessed Christ before the tribunal: his relatives were Martyrs: I am joined by blood to Martyrs. I have no defense that can serve as my advocate. If I should speak of the common race of the flesh, what were his ancestors like? I shall prove no better than those whom Blessed Job commemorated. My forebears were strangers, seeking their livelihood by trade and labor, and living from their contributions: my grandfathers, enjoying prosperous circumstances, were farmers: and my parents, being engaged in these occupations, were of humble condition and birth. By what boasting, then, shall I think myself like Nebuchadnezzar? By what abundance and magnificence of possessions? Do I have the strength of giants? Do I have a nature that delights in beauty? I would not wish to recount here what I did in my boyhood, lest I present myself as abominable to you. For when I was still a youth, his boyhood. I professed myself a Christian: nevertheless, in those few years I was abusive, violent, and seditious, quarrelsome and envious toward my neighbors, inhuman toward foreigners and strangers, harsh toward friends, bitter toward the poor, pugnacious and immoderate over trifling and petty things that came up; given also to wicked and lascivious thoughts, even beyond the age of their natural stirring. But concerning all these things I know that I obtained pardon at the tribunal: but not so concerning those things which I did afterwards, and which I committed after the knowledge of the truth. Therefore I greatly need your help, O friends.
NotesTESTAMENT OF THE SAME HOLY FATHER EPHREM,
translated by Gerardus Vossius, collated with the Greek manuscript.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
By the Author himself, from the Greek manuscript.
CHAPTER I.
Fear of judgment. Meekness. Right faith.
[1] I, Ephrem, am dying. Let it therefore be known to all, O men of Edessa. For I leave to you a Testament, a token and memorial of the teaching of truth, from that grace and gift which was granted to me: that in your commemorations of holy prayers you may keep my memory, and especially you who know and are acquainted with me. Woe is me! For the snares of death have overtaken me. Woe is me! St. Ephrem, about to die, shudders at the Divine Judgment. For the days of my life have failed me, and the garment of the body is worn out, and the web is now finished and altogether removed. The oil of the earthly lamp has run out: and those who are about to sink the boat have now drawn near. For being a hired laborer, I have completed my years: and a sojourner upon the earth, having now finished my time, I depart and go hence. On both sides the lictors and attendants have surrounded me, severe exactors; to subject my neck, like that of a criminal, to the heaviest punishment. What then? Shall I weep? But there is no one to pay heed. Shall I cry out? But where is one to hear me? Woe is me! From the reproof of judgment, grievous expectation awaits me. For when I shall stand before the dread tribunal of the Lord, and there those who know me shall judge me, surrounding me on both sides, I shall begin to be greatly confounded; since indeed the confusion there will be truly horrible, and woe then to the one who is confounded there. Lord Jesus Christ, enter not into judgment with Your servant, and give not my judgment to another: but before Your glorious tribunal grant that I may be able to stand worthily. For he whom the Lord judges obtains mercy: since this also, I say, I have heard from the wise and understanding and holy Apostles; that whoever has beheld the King, even though he be a sinner, shall be deemed worthy of such pardon, and shall not die. But woe to me, Brethren, from that which has constrained and straitened me. Weep and wail over my destruction: for those who would cast me out of the cave and set me in that region which receives men from this mortal world have now drawn near. Hosea 7:9 The Prophet Hosea terrifies me mightily with his resounding voice, as he rebukes and cries out, and says to me: "Grayness has blossomed upon Ephraim, and he himself has not been ashamed." and 10:11 And again: "Ephraim is a heifer driven mad by fury, taught to love contention." and 9:11 And again: "Ephraim has flown away like a bird." Now if anyone should say that the Prophet speaks these things of Ephraim who was the son of Joseph, yet I certainly feel that when the Prophet was thus lamenting, he did not distinguish one Ephraim from another. Moreover, David in turn again admonishes me, saying: "Ephraim is the strength of my head." Psalm 59:9 and 79:3 And again: "Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh." But I do not say these things puffed up by any arrogance, nor shall it approach me: for the Lord is witness of my thoughts and words. And now I wish, my Brethren, to remind and exhort you, and firmly to establish you, he asks his followers to pray for him: that after my departure and passing you may continually make remembrance of me in your prayers. Come now and close my eyes, and lay your hands upon them. For the spirit has failed within me, as I am now failing: and the things that pertain to me now have an end, and the true boundary has arrived. For you may set your life in me, and mine in you; from this bed on which I am held, I shall descend no more: for on every side I am weakening and falling apart, and I cannot endure; and severe pains are wearing me out. And I shall leave to you all a memorial and a spotless mirror; that always looking diligently into it and applying every care, you may strive perpetually to imitate and express it faithfully in your conduct.
[2] In all my life I never cursed anyone at all, and never contended with any of the faithful. he never contended with any Catholic; For with all apostates, teaching and rebuking and admonishing them, through all my days I did not grow sluggish in the judgments and counsels of the Saints. For you yourselves know, Brethren, that if any householder has a dog that neglects the fold and flock of sheep, or sees a wolf rushing into the sheep pen and destroying the cattle, and neither barks at it nor even pursues it, he certainly beats it as useless and drives it far from his house. You know therefore, Brethren, that a wise man pursues no one with hatred: always fierce against heretics: but if he hates anyone, he hates the foolish man. And the foolish man loves no one; and if he loves anyone, he loves one like himself. But you, Brethren, do not marvel at certain persons who, having embraced the discipline of obedience, withdrew from me: for even among the twelve Apostles there was one traitor, Judas Iscariot. You know, moreover, that even in the vineyard, the briar is accustomed to sprout unbidden; and among roses, thorns also grow and are plucked out.
[3] [he professes and instills in his followers the Catholic faith, which he always held:] I would wish the firmament of faith to be strengthened in you, as in my true and legitimate and harmonious brethren; assuring you by oath of my unchangeable and firm faith. For I desire that you be confirmed most excellently in your conviction concerning the incomprehensible and unique supreme faith of believers. And I swear to you by Him who descended in the nature of fire upon Mount Sinai; and by Him who spoke from the hardest rock in the pouring forth of water; and by that mouth which said on the Cross, as an example for us: "Eloi, Eloi, lamma Sabacthani?" — and all the inward parts of the ends of the earth were seized and constricted with trembling; and by Him who was sold in Judaea by the traitor Judas, and was scourged and suffered in the midst of Jerusalem; and by the majesty of Him who patiently endured being spat upon by the impious; and by the power of Him who allowed Himself to be struck with blows by the hand of a wicked and criminal man; and by that fire bearing three names, of most holy glory; and by that infinite and sole and one power of God; and by the three subsistences of intelligible fire, which are the height, and one will, and one and the same thing — in nothing was I ever separated from the universal faith, nor from the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God, nor did I ever doubt the power of God. If moreover in my mind I have magnified God the Father more than His Son, may the compassion of piety not be preserved in me. And if I have diminished the Holy Spirit from God, may I be made dark, far from His sight. And unless, as I confess from the beginning, so I now say and profess, may I be cast into outer and ever-darkening shadows. And if I speak these things deceitfully and dissemblingly, may my portion be reckoned with the impious in the fire of Gehenna. And if I furtively sow these things by flattery, may the Lord not have mercy on me in the judgment.
NotesCHAPTER II.
Poverty. Humility in burial and funeral rites.
[4] By your life, you who have truly persevered with me, O disciples, a true lover of poverty; and by the true and unchangeable life of the Son of God Himself: Ephrem never had a purse; he had no staff, no wallet. Neither silver nor gold, nor any other possession upon the earth did I ever acquire or possess. For I heard the good Master saying to His disciples in the sacred Gospels: "Possess nothing upon the earth." Matt. 10:9 Nor did I ever hold anything of this sort with disordered attachment. Come therefore, my Brethren, grant me peace at the end, and let me go; he bids farewell to his followers, and again asks them to pray for him: and release me, for I am failing and departing from life. Remember me, lowly and abject, in your holy prayers and all your supplications: for in vanity and sins I have completed and passed through my life.
[5] With fear and reverence I adjure you, O holy men and inhabitants of the city of Edessa, and by the unchangeable faith of the immortal God: do not forget the precepts and exhortations and counsels of my lowliness; nor spurn my words as though making light of and despising them, he commands that he not be buried beneath the altar, nor in the church; for these things have proceeded and been spoken from divine grace. And do not permit me to be placed in the house of God, or beneath the altar. If anyone by deceitful reasoning should dare to place me beneath the altar, may such a one never behold the heavenly and celestial altar: for it is not fitting that a worm teeming with putrefaction should be deposited in the temple and sanctuary of the Lord. Nor should you permit me to be placed in any other location within the temple of God: for he who stubbornly and obstinately shall have done this and deposited me in the temple of the Lord should not be deemed worthy of the temple of the glory of the kingdom of heaven. For vain glory profits not a sinful and unworthy man, and especially one to whom it is not fitting. For we were all born naked; and likewise, when we rise again, we shall also appear naked: and all of us, standing before the tribunal of Christ, shall there render an account of all that we have done in life. Why then do you honor me, who have not honored myself by the name of my deeds? For whoever has not honored himself by good works and approved deeds -- whatever esteem human life may bestow upon such a one, which in reality he has not attained, it will avail him nothing. Moreover, that every body created under heaven is also corruptible, Brethren, you have heard from God according to that which is written. Therefore I say also with weeping, Brethren, that as I have heard, and as you yourselves know, this temple made with hands is dissolved and corrupted; and a spiritual temple is raised up -- not a corporeal and transitory one, which is corrupted according to the desires of the flesh -- but the corporeal itself is raised up as spiritual and incorruptible, so that it may no longer return to corruption: namely, when that resounding trumpet of Christ shall rouse from sleep all who have slept from the ages. For judgment shall not be on account of temples made of stone, nor shall God judge stones; but the temples that are in the body, which contain human nature in the aforementioned temples. Each person, I say, God shall judge according to his own deeds; and according to each one's struggle and labor, He shall also render the reward due to his merits.
[6] nor that his garments be preserved as relics, Attend, my most beloved Brethren, and my cherished ones, lest you take away my garments as relics for the sake of a memorial. For you have the memorial precept of our Savior God, which you learned as received from Him, that you should await His return. Why then, beyond all else, do you impose upon me a heavy and intolerable burden and labor, lest at some time I should come into the judgment of inquiry (for I am not better than the men who have been holy from the ages) and be subjected to punishment and torment on your account? And the Lord, reproaching my folly, may say to me: "O Ephrem, men have believed more in you than in Me: for if they wish to take memorials from you, perhaps they have not believed in the observance of the commandments which I delivered to them; and therefore they take more delight in your memory than in Mine." Furthermore, I exhort and beseech you, O my cherished ones, if indeed you retain the teaching of Christ: do not place me with the Saints, for I am a sinner or that he be placed with the Saints; and the least of all; and on account of my folly and stupidity I fear to approach them. For if dry brushwood be brought near to fire, it will be entirely consumed and destroyed by it. I do not say these things, however, because I reject their fellowship and communion; but looking upon the infinite and immeasurable multitude of my sins, I shudder and tremble. For I hear the Prophet saying that even if Noah and Job and Daniel were to stand, they would by no means deliver their sons and daughters. Ezek. 14:14 And again: "A brother does not redeem a brother; shall a man deliver a man?" Ps. 48:8 So also Gehazi shall not be freed from his leprosy.
[7] Let no one among you carry me about in solemn procession for display; nor to be carried forth in splendor; but lifting me upon your shoulders, and accompanying me at a quick pace, and attending to the funeral, bury me as a despised and rejected disgrace: for in sorrows the days of my life have passed away. Let none of you, Brethren, celebrate or praise me with panegyrics: for I am lowly and abject before God, and utterly confounded by my works, and I tremble greatly, being before the Lord like those who do not dare to speak for shame. For who among you will reveal my debts, unless you all spit upon my ignorance and stupidity? And what fellowship has vice with virtue? Or what has the sinner, that he should approach the righteous? And what communion has light with darkness? For if you should perceive the odor of my deeds, you would all assuredly take flight and leave me unburied, unable to bear the stench of my sins. But whoever shall lay me out clothed in splendid garment to be adorned, embalmed; rather to be wrapped in his own tunic and cloak; shall be cast into outer darkness. And if anyone should embalm me with myrrh, his portion shall be in the burning furnace and in the fire of Gehenna. Rather, lay me out in my own tunic and cloak, which I used and wore daily. For adornment is by no means fitting for a sinner full of worms and putrefaction; nor does the glory of the living on earth gladden or adorn sinners. For I am a sinner, nor to be praised: as I have said. Therefore let no one proclaim me blessed: for all my deeds are known to my God, and all the iniquities and depravities which I committed in my folly. For I am defiled on account of my transgressions, and cast down on account of my crimes. What iniquity has not been committed by me? Or what sin does not reside in me? For all iniquities and sins have continually reigned in my mortal body.
NotesCHAPTER III.
Care for the poor. Blessing of Edessa. The manner of burial again prescribed.
[8] Moreover, all you who fulfill the office of fathers and sons and brothers and disciples, O men who inhabit Edessa, bring forth the fruits of your righteousness. [He commands that what they had resolved to spend on his funeral and monument be given to the poor:] All of you who have resolved to set aside anything with me for your indelible memorial -- so that I myself, having set a price for these things and having procured some precious vessel from them, may hire worthy workmen for your fruitful purpose -- I mean the poor and orphans and widows and the needy and strangers and the naked and the hungry and all those worn out by toil and hardship -- so that your memorial of salvation may be rendered perfect in the land of the living. For it will redound to your salvation, and to me a voluntary reward will be reckoned on account of my counsel. For the reward that is given for works is one thing, and that which is given for words is another. But greater, Brethren, is he who gives than he who receives, as you have heard from the Lord Himself through the Holy Spirit. Acts 20:35 Therefore, as each one of you may wish according to the intention of his own will, so may you fulfill it. I have received the grace of honors, Brethren, and I abound. Moreover, I adjure you by our Lord Jesus Christ, most beloved, that all things be distributed to the poor: for your love is more than enough for me, since you have honored me with all your strength and in every way. And although I am unworthy, yet may God, who has been honored, Himself repay you a superabundant reward. And as you have heard the wise Teacher saying: "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward." Matt. 10:41 For Christ Himself will receive your perfect gift, since in hope, for the sake of His name, you have honored me with such esteem.
[9] May your gift therefore be received, even as that of the righteous Noah and that of our ancient Father Abraham was received. And blessed be your city in which you dwell. He blesses the city of Edessa. For she is the city and mother of the wise, Edessa: which was also openly and manifestly blessed from the mouth of Christ the Lord through His disciples, who are our Apostles. For when King Abagarus, who built this city, entreated that he might be permitted to receive Him who had appeared as a stranger upon the earth -- the Savior, I say, of all and Lord Christ -- he said: "I have heard all the things that have been done by You, and all the things that You have suffered from the reprobate and disdainful Jews. Come therefore hither, and dwell with us: for I have a small city here which will suffice for both You and me." And the Lord, having marveled at his faith, sending thither by messengers, blessed that city forever, blessed by Christ, establishing its foundations: and that blessing, dwelling therein, shall remain in it until the Holy Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God from God, shall appear from heaven. Let no one among you, therefore, failing in his purpose, depart without fruit. For whoever shall have resolved to bring something and then abandoned it, let him suffer the death of the unjust Ananias, who indeed wished to tempt the most holy Spirit of God and to deceive the Apostles; and being rebuked, he fell at their feet.
[10] Now while I was still speaking these things, a certain man from among those standing there, a very distinguished person, [having been seized by a demon because he was thinking of not obeying his instructions, he heals him,] was seized by an unclean spirit and immediately fell beside the bed; and crying out, he rolled about. And I said to him: "O man, declare what you have done." And at the command of the word, that man immediately rose up and answered: "I had brought," he said, "I know not what precious garment, so that it might be buried with you. But you condemned us, forbidding yourself to be buried in more ornate attire; wherefore I began to reason thus within myself: If he is by no means willing to be clothed in these garments, what need is there to bring forth and display this garment at all? And if he commands it to be given to the needy, we have abundance of other goods and money; we shall distribute to the indigent as much as is needed." And answering, I said to him: "Go, and accomplish what you have resolved." And when I had prayed for him and laid my hands upon him, he was healed and freed from the unclean spirit.
[11] And again I said: "I admonish and forbid that anyone light a candle for me at my departure, lest you be thus consumed by eternal fire. He forbids candles to be lit for him. For what will the glory of corruptible fire profit a man who will be consumed by his own fire? For when that most dreadful fire shall appear, it will be consumed in him who is subject to it. Let the pain of myself therefore suffice for me; and let no other punishment be brought upon me from you. Let it cease and desist in me, Brethren, since my days have failed in sorrow; and that snare which I had not foreseen has surrounded me; and my examiner has come; and the attendants, cruelly tormenting me with snares, carry me away in haste; and they drag me to the land of the dead, and to a region which I have not known. I beg and beseech You, O Savior, my Guide and Creator: do not render me wretched by afflicting me, nor condemn me by crushing me. For if You should duly search out the things that have been done by me, ruin will surround me on every side. For when I recall all these works of mine, an intolerable fear and trembling falling upon me crushes me; and I am consumed with a certain grievous horror on account of the expectation of retributions and punishments which are perceived in that world to come; and I am seized with trembling and cannot endure it. And openly my teeth chatter and disturb me, there gnashing and aching on account of the horrible sentence of judgment."
[12] "I beseech you also, most beloved, that you not bury me with spices. And incense to be burned at the funeral. For luxuries are not fitting for the foolish and stupid; nor does glory become the inglorious; nor any other sweet-smelling smoke become one who is putrefaction and dust of the earth. Rather, give the vapor of sweet-smelling smoke in the house of the Lord, and accompany me rather with your prayers; and offer your spices to God. But bury me with weeping -- one conceived in sorrows. And instead of sweet fragrance and gleaming spices, help me, I beseech you, with your prayers and supplications, always making remembrance of me in them. For what will sweet fragrance profit the dead, who is now devoid of sense? Burn your incense, moreover, in the house of God, to the glory and praise of Him who Himself dwells therein."
[13] "Why, moreover, do you wrap a body subject to corruption in an illustrious and unusual garment, which will by no means keep it incorrupt? Rather, leave the earthly body to its mother the earth, since from her it was taken without spirit, and vain glory is not fitting for it. Riches become an illustrious and glorious man, but humility befits the poor: and a kingdom becomes the noble, while for those of low station the consolation of military service is fitting, proclaiming the grace of consolation. Nor should you deposit me anywhere in your monuments: for the niches of your monuments will not redeem me from my captivities. I have reason, moreover, to dwell with my God among strangers and sojourners, since I too am a sojourner and stranger, even as they. Cast me in therefore with these: for all flesh, my Brethren, cleaves to that of which it is a partaker; and every man rejoices in his like and companion. He commands himself to be buried in the cemetery. In the cemetery, therefore, where those of contrite heart lie, there lay me down and entomb me: so that when the Son of God shall come and shall cause them to rise and shall reform them, He may heal me together with them and raise me up."
NotesCHAPTER IV.
Prayers and offerings for the dead.
[14] Look, O Lord, upon the humility of my supplication; and I ask You to have mercy on me and make me worthy, O Only-begotten Son of God, and do not repay me for the things I have done in life. For if You should observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall endure it? And if You should render unto us according to Your majesty, who in Your judgment shall be deemed worthy of mercy? For every mouth, says the Scripture, shall be stopped, and the whole world shall be made subject to God. Rom. 3:19 I do not bring these things forward, however, as one who spurns grace; for I speak what is written, O most merciful Christ. For what profit is there in my blood if I shall be cast into burning fire? He implores the mercy of God. Come therefore, deal with me continually according to the custom of Your mercies; and therein shall the grace of Your piety and clemency be known. But even if You should execute judgment upon the whole earth, as Your grace declares and demands, not one out of a thousand shall be saved, since so few are saved: and out of ten thousand, not two shall be redeemed.
[15] What then? For I, the humble and abject Ephrem, speak while failing from pain. If therefore someone, wishing to persuade, should say that the judgment of mortals will not take place -- but, he says, shall the unjust and sinners be made equal to the just and upright and truthful, and the humble and good to the wicked and impious? These things cannot be so equalized among themselves: for it is impossible that light be consumed he proves that there will be a future judgment, and obscured by darkness. For how can it come about that the just Abel be made equal to the fratricidal and unjust Cain? Or by what reason can it easily come about that the just and unjust dwell together in the same place? For crying out, the wretched and unhappy reprobate shall utter dreadful and intolerable cries. I beseech You, O Savior, not to make sinners equal to the just; I entreat You, O Son of all goodness; but deign to extend Your mercies over me and over my humble companions.
[16] What therefore was said by me before, I shall say again, and I shall not depart from it, my Lord: for unless You extend Your glorious mercies over us, none of us shall behold life. For all mortals testify that there is one God who is good. I do not say these things, moreover, because I am a sinner: for it is customary for Sacred Scripture everywhere to report those things which have now been said by me. Be still and cease, and that many among good Catholics are saved: O Ephrem, says to me the Angel, my apprehender and reprover: for your continual sighs will not avail you, since the harsh attendants who have been sent to you are not softened by gifts. And answering sternly, he said to me: "Stop your mouth henceforth; for your companions have not perished among the generations of men: for the sinner thinks that all are like himself; and he who is blind likewise regards his neighbors and kinsmen as similar to himself."
[17] Come to me therefore, O my Brethren, and stretching out your hands, compose me: for my spirit has utterly failed. And accompany me with psalms, he again asks them to pray for him; and with your prayers, and deign to make offerings continually for my lowliness. And when I have completed the thirtieth day, make remembrance of me. For the dead are benefited in prayers and offerings by the favor of the commemoration of the living Saints. And see in each created thing something similar: for he proves that prayers and offerings avail the dead: as, for example, the shoot of the vine, and the unripe cluster in the field, and the wine pressed out in the vats. When therefore the cluster on the vine has ripened, then the wine will be agitated and will, as it were, depart from its own nature, although it may seem to remain unmoved in the house. Understand similarly also concerning the onion: for when one has been dry in the house and another has been planted in the field at the same time, at the moment when the latter unfolds its greenness, the one that was dry in the house also sprouts. If therefore the offspring of created things so agree among themselves, how much more shall the dead be refreshed in the commemorations and offerings of the living? And if you should skillfully reply to me that these things follow the nature of created things, you will understand that you are a kind of firstfruits of the creatures of God. But if a similar example does not yet convince you, unless I should also adduce testimony, hear patiently the things that are written; and if you are willing, you will also prudently understand the things that are said. Did not Moses, the servant of God, in his blessings, bless Reuben even to the third generation? If therefore the dead are not redeemed, for what reason did Moses bless Reuben to the third generation? And if there is no memorial of the resurrection, hear what the Apostle Paul cries out, saying: 1 Cor. 15:29 "If the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?" For those who were under the law were held confined in mystery, in expectation of the resurrection, unto that faith which was to be revealed; as you have read, that in the offerings of sacrifices, the priests under the law cleansed also those who had been wounded in war by their own iniquities: for being full of works of iniquity, they were debtors of all those things that are written. But how much more shall the priests of the new testament of Christ be able rightfully to blot out the debts of those who depart, in the holy offerings and prayers of their tongues?
[18] When moreover you come to make remembrance of me, see to it, he warns them to treat holy things in a holy manner; Brethren, that no one sin against the holy things; but attentively and reverently and humbly and in a holy and pure manner keep watch. Not that the sin committed through the weakness of the flesh merits a heavier condemnation beyond the other things inherent in it: for there are other sins far graver and worse than that. Yet this seems to me a pitiable thing to impend: that perhaps on the occasion of honor and remembrance, on account of your disordered deeds, I should render an account for you to my God. For perhaps in the judgment He will object this to me, saying: "O Ephrem, of all these things you were the cause and author, inasmuch as you gathered together such licentious men." For it is written: "Fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Heb. 13:4 And what shall we say to this, my most beloved Brethren? What I said a little before, seized with fear, I shall say also now: lest their sins be imputed to him, that, namely, he whom God shall judge is to be deemed treated leniently and indulgently. "For when we are judged," says the Apostle, "we are corrected by the Lord, lest we be condemned with this world." 1 Cor. 11:32 For just as a little leaven corrupts the whole mass, so idleness of thought, when the evil is spread abroad, burns the whole body. And just as rust consumes iron, so also sin committed by men wars against their more honorable members and habits; and once perpetrated by them, it consumes and corrupts those who have fulfilled its way. But he who has not done its will is like a traveler of a single day remaining in some inn, whence he afterwards departs. So, having lingered for a brief time, he will at last betake himself to flight. For this mortal body passes away and puts on the immortal and heavenly: and when it shall have perished, then it shall rise again effectively as incorruptible, free from all corruption. Behold, even Paul, that most brilliant and most delightful lamp of the Church, employs before these words those of our weakness, or rather confirms them, when he says: "What is sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption." 1 Cor. 15:42
NotesCHAPTER V.
Blessings upon the disciples. Execration of heretics.
[19] But come now, my disciples; for the rest, be blessed in the strength of the good Shepherd He blesses his disciples; and of the holy Master Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God from God. And although I am not like Noah, may you nevertheless be blessed as Shem and Japheth. And although I am not like Melchizedek, may you nevertheless become like Abraham. Although I am not like Isaac, may you nevertheless approach and be blessed like Jacob. And although I am not like Moses, may you be like Joshua the son of Nun. Although I am not like Elijah, receive a double spirit, as Elisha the Prophet requested. I shall begin, moreover, to pray for your welfare among you, my disciples. Amba, O admirable man, may Christ magnify your memorial upon the earth; and may your person be near the Angels of the majesty of God, and may you be made like the great Moses; To Abba, Abraham; so that all who behold you may understand that you are a chosen servant of God. And you, Abraham, because coming you attached yourself to me, may the God of Abraham hear you in your prayers and supplications; and before you open your mouth, may He fill it with wisdom and understanding, as the Prophet says elsewhere: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." Ps. 80:11
[20] Simeon, I say to you, may God hear you To Simeon, when you ask Him in your prayers; and may you enter into the heavenly city. May His Church be filled, like a cup of mixed drink of the peoples, unto belief in salvation. May brides come into your presence, and enclosed women into your teaching. Of whom indeed the brides are mothers; and the enclosed, however, were held as if under the yoke of the adversary: To Marc; but Christ coming set them free, hearing from you the parables of wisdom, so that through you they might receive the teaching of life from the Holy Spirit, and might obtain from you the salvation of their souls. And as a wise physician in the parable of the needy, so may your hearing range through the domain. Maras, a man of Galilee, gentle and simple, humble and upright -- gentle, I say, not by nature but by free will, as one contending in the hope of God -- you have helped me in my sufferings. May God Himself therefore render your reward among the pious, which you shall receive with all the Saints.
[21] To Zenobius: Zenobius, a man of Gisdraza, which is interpreted "hunter," and trained and mighty, and a powerful warrior: may your speech be like fire, and may it consume the multitude of the wicked. And as a flame passing through dense forests, so may your discipline lick them clean; and may you be instructed in all knowledge of God. And as David, the illustrious one, was made known by conquering the wicked Goliath, so also may you, through the ecstasy and rapture of contemplation, conquer the souls of those who err. Put on the armor of the Saints, and the helmet of the hope of salvation, the firmament of the holy Apostles: which armor of the Saints is also the Holy Spirit Himself; and the helmet of their strength is the finger of God. May the merciful and compassionate Lord Himself be always your companion and helper, who will never fail you in anything.
[22] Woe to you, Paullona, whose mother is accursed among women. He curses Paullona the apostate. Woe to the womb that bore you, for you have been made a partaker of the perdition of all heresies, and you enter by the gate of brigands: for your works are full of every wickedness and infamy. Stripped bare, you have been cast out from grace, and made a traitor like Judas Iscariot, and confounded by all your pursuits. For the pillar of this one is the seat which you have abandoned. But He who sustains the heavens, and in whom the nature of every creature is established and confirmed -- since every creature is founded in Him, the sea and its fullness -- will Himself display a terrible prodigy in your body. For you have trusted in a broken reed, abandoning the staff and armor of the Cross, which strengthens the weak and heals and cures every passion and disease both of soul and body.
[23] Arouandran, an unbridled and rebellious man, because you wished to demolish and destroy the congregations of the churches of Christ gathered by the Holy Spirit, and Arouandran, may your memory be blotted out from under heaven; and may it not be found in the book of the living; because you have abandoned the wine of life, namely the blood of Christ, and the heavenly bread, that is, the body of Christ our Savior, and have eaten the food of contaminated sacrifices and drunk the wine of sinners, turbid gall. May the Word of God, the Son of the Father, against whom your impious mouth hurled curses and blasphemed, require of you by sharp and subtle inquiry the reproach and insult done against Him: and other heretics, and likewise from all heretics -- Arians, I say, and Manichaeans, Cathari and Ophites, Marcionists and Eunomians, and Euchites and Cauchites, Paulianists and Valentinians, Vitalians and the foul Borborians, and all other impious ones who venerate wood and stones, and likewise the Sun and Moon, such as also are the augurs and astronomers, who are variously separated against the holy Majesty of the pure and immaculate Trinity, to be excluded from heaven, of the Father and the Son and the Holy and life-giving Spirit.
[24] Blessed is he who has chosen His Catholic Church, like a holy lamb which the corrupting wolf has not crushed; and an immaculate dove which he who was pursuing it has not overtaken, so as to dash it and destroy it -- the cunning and crafty hawk-hunter. For the cup in the hand of the Lord is of thick wine: and from it drink all the apostates of Christ, the dividers of the holy Trinity without beginning; and the enemies of truth -- the race of the Jews, I say -- having drunk, they vomited, and cruelly made an assault against our Savior Jesus Christ. And it is no wonder: for a rabid dog, driven by fury and madness, bites even its own master. In the same way the Jews also acted, and still act, and as if driven by a kind of madness, they defame and blaspheme their own Lord. But let us glorify the God of all things, exalted on high, whom the posterity of apostates cannot approach. For if they had possessed any reasoning faculty to imagine that even sinners could ascend into heaven, then, dissenting, they would certainly have sown discord even there, in the house of piety, I say, in the celestial tabernacles; just as in ancient times, their ancestors in the land of Chaldea strove with all zeal to ascend into heaven by the building of a tower, and having fallen, they collapsed, driven back from grace, acting wickedly in vain and to no purpose; and therefore the tongues of all of them were also confused and divided by a most disjointed separation. If therefore such a violent calamity invaded those who attempted this evil, when they wished to ascend to the place and region of the supernal Saints and the dwelling of the watchful ones; and their reward so openly fell back upon their own heads: how much more shall they be condemned and deemed worthy of punishment who plan to scatter the separation of apostasy in the hearts of mortals, against God the Father and His Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit?
Notesp. Valentinus, in the time of the Emperor Antoninus, put forward absurd fables about the Aeons. Theodoret, book 1, chapter 7. The Valentinians, dispersed through the East, gravely wounded the Church of God, says the Praedestinatus at heresy 11. Baronius has much about them in vol. 2 of the Annals. Valentinus:
q. Vitalis. Vitalis, a presbyter of Antioch under St. Meletius, afterwards a bishop of the Apollinarists, whence the Vitalians. So Vossius and Prateolus from Nicephorus, book 11, chapter 12, and book 12, chapter 4. We shall treat of Apollinaris below.
r. Barbeliotae, or Barborians. The Barbeliotae, as Theodoret writes in book 1, chapter 13, added other things to the delusions of Valentinus: on account of their most foul practices they were called Borborians, apo tou borborou, "from filth and sordidness." Vossius also and Prateolus treat of them.
s. The Greek manuscript has: monarchou triados. Vossius also noted this reading and translated it: "which alone commands and reigns and rules."
CHAPTER VI.
Faith and pious works inculcated, and detestation of heretics.
[25] Applying yourselves diligently therefore to my precepts and teaching, as my disciples, do not depart from the Catholic faith, he exhorts his followers to constancy in the faith, by his own example, which I myself, having received from my tender years, have kept immovable and unshaken; nor deviate from it in any doubt or schism. But if anyone should doubt, or striking and falling away against God and His holy Church should be separated, let him be thrust down alive, while still breathing and living, into hell, and be made a partaker of the inheritance of the curse of Cain, and let him be groaning and trembling upon the earth. And whoever should make the Son less than the Father, let such a one also descend alive into the earth, unburied and without sepulture. But if anyone should dissent against the Holy Spirit, let such a one not obtain mercy in the judgment. And if anyone should exalt himself against the Catholic Church, let him be made leprous like the demented and foolish Gehazi. Whoever moreover shall have abandoned the right faith of understanding, let him be bound with the cord of iniquity of the traitor Judas. For the faith which I received, I learned from the holy Apostles; and they, having received it from God together with it, preached it to every creature. Intolerable, therefore, and to be avoided with the utmost care is the iniquity of blasphemy against God; flee openly its allurement and enticement, O my disciples. For he who blasphemes preaches apostasy against the God of all things and removes the foundation of the word of faith. And we, oppressed by the heavy servitude of the sluggish flesh, cannot easily raise ourselves up. Let us not, therefore, heap sins upon sins.
[26] And to reverence of the Deity, I have, moreover, an expectation of hope in this and a consolation of love before the Lord: that I have in no way assailed the Lord with curses in all my life, and no foolish word has gone forth from my lips. "For those who hate You, O Lord, I have hated with a perfect hatred; and Your enemies I have utterly abhorred." Ascetic works. Inscribe the remembrance of my words, my Brethren, upon your hearts: for from the beginning God has been their author to me. And let this be your exercise toward God: that you love assiduous vigils and psalmody and fasting and faith; and always hope for and await the Lord of all and our Savior Jesus Christ. Moreover, we ought to have, together with charity, also a care for receiving guests and strangers. Hospitality, For he who receives a stranger plainly receives God Himself. See to it, therefore, that no one call such a person a stranger; but rather let each one of you call him his own member.
[27] And concerning the faith, be especially constant, guarding yourselves from adversaries -- workers of iniquity, I say, and vain talkers, and deceivers. Which indeed especially the avoidance of heretics, the Apostle also did not neglect to say and teach, where he speaks thus: "Know that after my departure, grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock, speaking perverse things, so that they may draw disciples after them." Acts 20:29 And elsewhere in the Gospel the Lord says: "Those who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" -- having sweet words, He says, but a heart full of gall and bitterness. Matt. 7:15 And indeed they are clothed in a garment of mourning, being themselves disciples of the devil who has envied us from the beginning; and for this reason they also carry his tares. With all zeal and diligence therefore, guarding yourselves, flee the company of such men. Now I give you a clear example of this, most beloved: if some countryman or rustic should be found standing in a royal place, even if he should have been seen to commit nothing evil or absurd, he will nevertheless be treated with dishonor as rash, and being brought to judgment will be examined according to the laws, as a stranger to such a place.
[28] Do not therefore sit together with them in the council of their vanity, who are worse than a demon, and do not search out the path of their thinking. For there is little difference between dwelling with a demon and dwelling with an apostate and wicked deserter: for a demon, when adjured, will flee in fear, since he cannot remain where Christ is named against him. But you, O man, if outwardly you are in the body of Christ, and if inwardly also you are in His spirit, you are a complete man of Christ. For a man who has not received baptism is like a certain house prepared for a King, which the King has in no way inhabited. But if you should adjure the wicked and faithless man, this one will use his malice doubly, nor will he relent at all from his madness. Now unclean demons can more easily be adjured than sons of iniquity can be persuaded. For the demons, confessing the Son of God, say: "You are Christ, the Son of God." Luke 4:41 But the princes and preachers of apostasy -- the Jews, I say, and the Paulianists, impious and fighters against Christ -- stubbornly contend that He is not the Son of God. And behold their unbridled and bitter manners. The author and chief of their apostasy cries out and says: "What have we to do with You, Jesus, Son of God?" Luke 8:28 And they constantly deny it.
[29] If therefore it can come about that a barren willow sprout in a dry and arid place, it will also be possible they are converted with the greatest difficulty: that an apostate be instructed at some time. For the counsels and thoughts of a proud mind shall be humbled, as it seems to the Prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed: "Every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places shall be made into smooth ways." Isa. 40:4 If therefore a barren willow shall sometime sprout in a thorny place, the prophetic word will also be confirmed for us, and greater and more numerous things than these shall come to pass; and brigands and the unjust shall come to learn the truth. But just as a raven can never become white, and if this one should become white, then also the evil man would become good and, approaching, would learn what is good. It happens, however, sometimes that in winter, when snow falls, the raven appears white for a time, although by its own nature it is otherwise dark and black: for as soon as it has urged itself to fly and shaken off all the snow from itself, it appeared to the onlookers the same color as before. Similar to this also are sinners: who, when they have shown temporary fruits of repentance, being struck with compunction for a brief time and dreading the words of future judgment -- because in the time and purpose of their compunction they have not remained steadfast -- a little later, as if oblivious of all things, they are carried off again to their former abode of vices.
[30] Hear my instructions and precepts, O my disciples, and always keep them in memory: do not depart from the way of truth, nor turn aside from my traditions and admonitions. When moreover you shall hear of wars and commotions in creation, know that the end is at the doors; and therefore hold firmly and steadfastly to your hope. For it is written that all things shall come to pass which are spoken in the Scripture. For "heaven and earth," He says, "shall pass away; he sets forth the signs of the approaching judgment: but one jot or one tittle of the law shall not be able to pass away," as our Lord and Master swore and said through Himself. You know moreover that He is truthful and never lies. Therefore, that we may be able to stand before the incorrupt and immutable Judge of the most righteous sentence, let us give serious effort to render ourselves continually perfect and whole through good works in patience.
NotesCHAPTER VII.
Modesty inculcated upon a pious woman. Death.
[31] Meanwhile, while the holy and blessed man was enjoining and commanding these things with tears, he permits a coffin to be made for him, but not of marble: and the multitude of the entire city stood around and wept, a certain woman named Lamprotate, daughter of the great Aristides, pushing apart the throng of men and women on either side, fell at his feet and said: "By your God, whom you have loved from your youth unto old age, permit me, your handmaid, to make a small coffin, as you have commanded and adjured us to do, in which I may place your venerable relics." But he, having received and approved the fervor of her purpose, said to her: "Woman, go, do as you have purposed within yourself, and do not hinder others who wish to do the same. But take care that you do not make me a monument of marble: for vain glory will profit me nothing."
[32] Moreover, I lay upon you this very brief commandment, which see that you keep: he counsels a woman not to be carried in a litter: Do not sit in litters at all. For it is neither pious nor holy nor lawful that a man bend his neck to carry a woman, and that attendants bear upon their shoulders her who was the cause of our destruction and death: since Christ, at whose worship you attend, you thereby subject to the yoke. Have you not read or heard that "the head of every man is Christ"? 1 Cor. 11:3 And when you measure out anything to someone, remember the universal resurrection and the retribution of our deeds that shall be given us there by God. "For with what measure a man shall have measured, it shall be measured to him again." Matt. 7:2; Luke 6:38 Indeed, you have perhaps heard God Himself saying: "I will judge each of you according to your ways and according to your pursuits, O house of Israel: as I live, says the Lord." Ezek. 18:30
[33] Then the maiden swore before the people standing around, saying: "By the God whom you have steadfastly served from your youth unto old age, she swears that she will keep this command, hereafter I shall not enter a litter, and no man shall any longer go beneath to carry my litter. But if I have lied, may the sword of dissolution and destruction come upon me in the very same hour in my youth; and in the future fire, may my portion be reckoned with the impious. And if I have transgressed your commandments, may I be set forth as an example before the whole Church of God." But the blessed man, answering, said to her: "O daughter, before I fail and die, I shall bless you according to your purpose and desire. He blesses her. May the teaching of the Saints never fail from your seed, even unto the ages. When Christ shall come to change heaven and earth, may He Himself inscribe your memory in the book of life in the kingdom of heaven. And may the peace of God, which crowns the Saints with immaculate garlands, bestow upon you the reward of your calling according to your heart. For to God the Father belongs glory, and to the Only-begotten Son adoration, and to the Holy Spirit majesty and magnificence, before all ages, both now and always, and unto the generations of generations, through infinite ages of ages. Amen."
[34] And saying these things and many others beyond them, he rendered his soul to God. And thereupon he dies. The Blessed One departed in the Lord in the best state of life; and it was done to his body as he himself had commanded his disciples, to the glory of God Almighty. Amen.
ON THE LIFE OF THE SAME ST. EPHREM
Oration of St. Gregory of Nyssa, Bishop.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
BY ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA.
CHAPTER I.
Exordium. Proposition. What is to be praised in Ephrem.
[1] The similitude hidden in the divine Gospels earnestly urges me to the proposed theme of discourse, and loosens the tongue constrained by the bridle of silence, and levels the paths of thought like spacious fields and adorns them, and renders the chariot of speech ready and prepared for undertaking the journey, while it cries out, as it were, with a clear voice in these words: "Neither do they light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house." Matt. 5:15 What moreover is to be understood from these words, He adds, saying: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works." ibid. 16 Shall we therefore deservedly be reproached if, negligent and idle, we wrap in silence that in whose celebration the Lord Himself commanded us to take great courage? For since He has kindled the life of this holy Father St. Ephrem is to be preached, like a bright torch more splendid than the sun, and has set it before us to be expounded, He does not suffer us to pass it over in silence and conceal it under a bushel; rather, let us place it upon the lofty pinnacle of the Church, that it may shine for all who dwell in the house of this entire world; and those who have received its light may glorify and praise the heavenly Father.
[2] Wherefore the paternal bond of his prohibition is not so greatly to be feared that the Lord's own commandment should be scorned. Indeed, the beginning of his praise ought to have been drawn from that very fact, although we have deferred it to the end of our discourse. For to one rightly examining the matter itself, it will not entirely seem to be a bond (although he himself forbade it, which forbids adorning with praises one who shunned human glory -- or certainly an easily loosed bond, and an obligation of such a kind as rather impels those who love him to render this very service. For those things by which he thought he would escape praises, he is for that very reason worthy of praise, overturning and impeding our efforts by the bond of his prohibition, themselves supply us with an occasion for praising. For while each of the outstanding qualities of his soul provides abundant matter for praise, this especially stands out: that he is not pleased by praises. For he desired not to appear good, but rather to be good. From which one thing alone, even if he had accomplished nothing else worthy of praise, he would assuredly deserve to be praised. For he said he was so delighted by praises that he preferred to seal and avoid by that bond the blame flowing from them. Now this opens the first stage of our discourse, and clearly shows the goal toward which we ought to direct our course: lest proceeding rashly we be carried headlong, but advancing along the royal road, let us consider that this admirable man of God would not have forbidden himself to be praised by his own judgment as well) unless he had known himself worthy of praise: for no one, unless he is very distinguished and to be admired, while he still excels in the greatest virtues during his lifetime, commands the memory of himself to be blotted out by oblivion among posterity. And just as Paul, the preacher of grace, the patron of the Church, the mouth of Christ, although he said of himself, "I am not worthy to be called an Apostle," yet did not thereby bring it about that he was less called an Apostle: indeed, the more humbly he thought of himself, the greater glory he obtained. 1 Cor. 15:9 So also this great Father of ours, because he prudently and cautiously deemed himself unworthy of praises, deserves henceforth to be celebrated with praises.
[3] Since therefore it is the custom and practice of our Church by the custom of the Church, to crown the cultivators of virtue, precisely because they have embraced its demands -- and especially those who by their humble opinion of themselves have risen to spiritual heights -- since the Gospel itself says: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted" -- those are by no means to be blamed, or mocked, or reproached, who, describing the virtues and commendations of this holy Father, erect his life before us as a living and breathing column, as it were. Luke 14:11 The prudent hearer will know that the things we have mentioned are by no means false, if, on account of his various virtues, when the oration is finished, he considers the various kinds of his virtues, from which we, weaving a crown distinguished with precious and varied gems and gold, shall offer a welcome and desired gift to the Church of Christ. For she delights and rejoices to be adorned with such gifts, whenever the solemn commemoration of a just man occurs to be celebrated. Wherefore, since the cycle of the year so turns on his anniversary; that today St. Ephrem is to be praised and celebrated by us, it cannot be but that with immense joy she receives and embraces this memorial, this pledge of love.
[4] Ephrem therefore is the one I am to celebrate -- he who is on the lips of all Christians; Ephrem, I say, the Syrian; a man by far the greatest; for we are not ashamed of that nation whose morals illuminate us. Ephrem, the splendor of whose life and teaching has shone upon the whole world: for in almost every place illuminated by the Sun, he is known; and he remains unknown only to those who are ignorant of that great light of the Church, St. Basil. Ephrem, that true Euphrates of the Church, by whose waters the irrigated multitude of Christians produces a hundredfold fruit of faith. Ephrem, that fertile vine of God, which, bearing fruits of teaching like sweet clusters, nourishes and fills and refreshes and delights the children of the Church with divine love. Ephrem, that good and faithful steward of the Church, who, distributing equally the accounts of the virtues to his fellow servants, most wisely administers the household of God.
[5] As for his lineage and nobility, both that which he acquired himself and that which he received from his ancestors, and the glory of his parents, Setting aside, however, and his birth, and upbringing, and the increase of his age, and the form of his body, and his condition, and his arts, and the other things which are usually reviewed by secular writers as of the greatest importance in eulogies, those matters which rhetoricians treat first, we judge it superfluous to bring forward here: since it has been established that holy men should not be praised from such considerations. And although ample material for praising him would be supplied to us even from those sources, we shall not weave the crown of our discourse by any other ways and means than those by which he rendered himself illustrious through his life and teaching. For true praises consist in those things which are placed within ourselves; and rewards are owed to those things which proceed from our own will. As for the things we have mentioned, both the reproaches are false lineage, homeland, education, arts; and the praises are inappropriate. For in what way would he wish to be praised for his lineage, who despised all worldly nobility and pomp, and desired through excellent works to become a son of God? How would he suffer himself to be celebrated for his homeland, who did not consider the whole world as belonging to him, and who turned away from the material creation as from an enemy, on account of the immortal blessedness stored up in heaven? Or how would he be delighted by the celebrity of his ancestors or parents, who utterly cast aside bodily affection and the very animal tunic of the flesh as impeding the swiftest courses toward virtue? In what way, finally, would he permit himself to be adorned either from the growth of his body, or from his education, or from his arts or other pursuits of life added to these -- he who from boyhood itself was brought up in the meditation of the Sacred Scriptures and, growing up and drinking from the perennial fountains of grace, strove to attain the measure of the age of Christ, to speak with the Apostle? Eph. 4:13
[6] Since therefore we know that this great Father of ours does not wish to be loaded with those ridiculous praises by which men devoted to sense and body are captivated, we shall attempt to celebrate him at least moderately from his own labors: for speech does not possess a nature that can be stretched beyond its powers. Wherefore we shall strive neither to wrap in silence, hampered by inadequacy, the things that should be said about him; nor, proceeding along some path alien to the teachings of the Fathers, to deviate from the royal road: but rather, passing between both extremes, let us apply a suitable moderation to our discourse. And what are those things which we have proposed and set before ourselves for weaving his eulogy? Action, namely, and contemplation, his virtues are soundly praised, followed by the examination of virtues: faith, hope, charity, piety toward God, meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, purity of soul and body, constancy of tears, a solitary life, withdrawal from place to place, flight from evils, perpetual teaching, continual prayer, fasting, and immoderate vigils, sleeping on the ground, and an austerity of life almost incredible, voluntary poverty with singular humility, mercy surpassing the human condition, divine zeal against those who raged furiously against piety and religion; in short, all those things by which a man is marked with the image of God. With these praises is this Father of ours adorned: what we commemorate, he acknowledges; that these are his own prerogatives, he well knows; and these discourses he does not despise, as useful for us, not for himself. For even a brief narration about him becomes for the studious a reason for embracing virtue. And we have learned these things not from elsewhere, from his own writings, but from those things which he himself scattered throughout his various writings: from which, I say, like a diligent bee gathering useful things from many flowers, we have composed this spiritual honeycomb. But he will by no means be displeased with us for attempting these things, since he no longer fears the wicked demon, who is accustomed to trip up many even in their final agony: for he has already reached the tranquil harbor of incorporeal beings, where he dreads no storms or tempests at all. Come then, let us dwell briefly on each of the things that have been enumerated, and show those assembled what kind of man this outstanding person became, and to what degree of spiritual holiness he advanced himself.
NotesCHAPTER II.
The Theological Virtues of St. Ephrem.
[7] As for his faith, deviating in no way from piety, he held exceedingly right beliefs: which we have clearly ascertained both from his writings and from the Church's estimation of him. For he equally abominated the false confusion of Sabellius and the insane division of Arius. The Catholic faith, He stood, moreover, within the boundaries of piety and religion. For thus he both divided by number of persons, and joined by unity of substance, the one, unconfused, and most sacred Trinity, in such a way that he neither contemptuously afflicted the divine nature with poverty after the manner of the Jews, nor raved with a multitude of Gods after the manner of the Gentiles and pagans: which we find happens to those who are insolently abusive toward the incomprehensible Trinity. Furthermore, the most absurd opinion of Apollinaris he so detested that he strove with every effort and care to root it out from the minds of all Christians. Moreover, the futile and unbridled tongues of the Anomoeans he thoroughly suppressed with various arguments and testimonies of Scripture, defended in writings against the heretics: and left us most useful and divinely inspired monuments against them. If anyone, moreover, wishes to behold the slaughter of the most audacious adversary in the conflict of St. Ephrem's disputations with Novatus, let him look upon the fall of the opponent. For there he will find the strength of our Doctor so superior in the very encounter of the contest that he would call the one an invincible all-round champion, but the other soft and like a boy not yet confirmed in age. Nor did he repel with the rectitude of faith only those heresies which had then or previously sprung up from the seed of malice, like tares; but also those which could perniciously sprout in the future, foreseeing them with prophetic eyes, he cut them off. For all the volumes he wrote are full of demonstrations. Never therefore did this son of truth deviate from truth itself.
[8] His hope, moreover, was fixed entirely upon God alone, in whom those who place their hopes hope: receive their rewards. Wherefore he was accustomed to employ in all his deeds and words that saying of the Psalm: "In Him my heart has hoped, and I have been helped." Ps. 27:7 "For mercy shall surround him who hopes in the Lord." Ps. 31:10; 123:1 And trust in the Lord renders one like Mount Zion, and establishes the one who possesses it in the highest blessedness, as may be learned from the Prophets themselves, since David says: "Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord." Ps. 39:5 And Jeremiah: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence: and he shall be like a tree that is transplanted beside the waters, which sends its roots toward moisture; and he shall not fear when the heat comes." Jer. 17:7; Isa. 33:22 And Isaiah: "The Lord is our King, the Lord is our Savior, He Himself shall save us." Isa. 12:2 "Behold, God is my Savior; I will act confidently and will not fear." Indeed, Paul also admonishes us, saying: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope; for He is faithful who has promised." Heb. 10:23
[9] Nurtured therefore by this divine and stored-up hope, St. Ephrem, spurning all human and transitory things, continually desired eternal glory. Moreover, he maintained love toward God and neighbor so studiously charity toward God and neighbor that, departing from this world, he reported these things among his last words; for it is fitting to bring forth the very words of that holy Father, as superior to every demonstration: "In no way in all my life," he says, "have I been abusive toward the Lord, nor has a foolish word gone forth from my lips. plainly outstanding: I have burdened no one in all my life with curses, nor have I shown myself a contentious man toward any Christian whatsoever." O happy tongue, which confidently uttered such a voice, which is especially fitting only for Angels, on account of their life remote from all matter and change: but it does not so befit us, who serve the flesh, and surpasses the powers of our nature more than can easily be matched by deeds. And though you may examine at great length the labors and lives of those who have been illustrious in virtues, you will scarcely find any similar token of pure and sincere charity. For if charity excels above all virtues, our Ephrem cultivated it in such a way that no other among the Fathers did so more greatly. But since each one shall receive rewards worthy of his own deeds, lest we seem to compare Fathers with Fathers, we shall rather leave these things for others to consider. Nor indeed have we said these things for the sake of comparison; but so that the people may clearly understand that this Doctor of ours -- or rather of the whole Church -- St. Ephrem, attained the highest degree on the spiritual ladder of virtues.
NotesCHAPTER III.
Compunction and other virtues.
[10] His piety and religion, moreover, he acquired in the true possession of wisdom, according to the saying of Job: "Behold, the worship of God is wisdom." Job 28:28 Through it, as we showed a little before in describing the purity of his faith, religion: just as St. Paul ascended to the third heaven and prepared for himself eternal glory of name in the Church, so also the meditation of the Sacred Scriptures was kindled in him from the Davidic lamp, according to the saying: "In my meditation a fire shall burn." 2 Cor. 12; Ps. 38:4 For love, inflaming him with the fire of heavenly contemplation, stirred up an ardor for sublime things. For unrolling all of Scripture, both old and new, [study of the Sacred Scriptures, all of which he expounded; and of eloquence and philosophy:] and applying himself to its contemplation as no one else, he interpreted the whole accurately, word by word; and from the very creation of the world to the last book of grace, he illuminated what was hidden and concealed with commentaries, using the light of the Spirit. Nor did he merely draw from the waters of this divinely granted wisdom of ours and impart them to others; but he also practiced those arts and disciplines which pertain to the method of speaking correctly and ornately, and to the subtlety of teaching, insofar as he judged them useful, rejecting vain and foolish things, and weighing action and contemplation on the scale of equity.
[11] Chastity. The purity of his soul and body, moreover, excelled beyond human nature -- indeed, even beyond the quasi-human condition, since it is a gift of grace. For he did not allow his mind to wander from that disposition which accords with right reason; and truly he ruled his soul while his body shone forth. This is sufficiently confirmed by the snares which (as has been handed down to memory) were laid for him by a shameless woman. For when Belial the murderer had used her as a kind of bait of wickedness to deceive this distinguished and rare man, he was so far from obtaining what he had hoped when a harlot laid snares for him, she was converted: that he actually set her to fight against the very insidious one in the conflict: since through exhortations and admonitions and, as it were, incantations of divine reasoning, he brought her, once converted, to a better way of life; and from a shameless woman made her chaste, from a wanton woman made her grave, from a defiled woman made her pure and virtuous.
[12] Now, for one wishing to tell of his overflowing and perpetual tears, tears truly well up: continual tears, since the ocean of his tears can scarcely be crossed without tears. For just as it is proper for all human beings to draw breath without interruption, so for the Blessed Ephrem to shed tears continually seemed, as it were, implanted by nature. For there was no day, no night, no part of day or night, nor any briefest moment of time in which his wakeful eyes were not seen suffused with tears. For now he lamented the common, now (as he said) the private calamities and absurdities. And sighs: With sighs, moreover, he prudently checked the rivers of his eyes, or rather with the rivers of his eyes he aroused his sighs. And the progress of both things was admirable, although in other respects each seemed to be the cause of the other: for tears flowed from him, and the cause was unknown to many. For since time did not take them away, but in a certain mutual alternation both tears received sighs and sighs received tears, the cause of both lay hidden.
[13] This, however, whoever shall have unrolled his writings will come to know. For not only where he treats of penance, of morals, in his writings is a power of arousing compunction, of right institutions of life, will one find him mourning and sighing; but even in those panegyrics which most authors are accustomed to sprinkle with much cheerfulness. But here he showed himself the same everywhere, and continually sought the office of mourning as though it were riches. Whence even now he recalls nearly all the hearers of his discourses to embrace the true life: so great is the power of his speech mingled with tears. For who is so hard and adamantine of heart that, hearing his words, he is not softened, and casting aside the roughness of his habits, does not grieve from the heart for his own sins? Who is so fierce and harsh that, receiving his salutary teaching with his ears, he does not lament the time he has spent amiss? Who is so savage and cruel that, as soon as he has tasted his words sweeter than any honey, he does not straightway show himself altogether gentle and lovable? Who, shrinking from tears, has so given himself over to pleasures that, hearing even a few of his words, he does not lament and mourn, calling to mind that retribution which we shall receive for the life we have led?
[14] In matters that cannot be done, that proverb is commonly employed: "You are trying to persuade a stone to have pity." But we have learned from experience that this can be done. For this holy elder utterly softened and broke minds which, for their evil and obstinate hardness, you would call stones, and of other virtues, and bent them as he wished. For who, reading his discourse on humility, does not immediately lay aside all self-esteem and foolish arrogance and confess himself the most abject of all? Who, perusing what he wrote on charity, is not so inflamed as to be prepared for undertaking even any danger? Who, unrolling those passages in which he praises virginity, does not strive to offer himself to God, chaste in body and soul? Who, hearing or reading his discourses in which he describes the last judgment, or the second coming of Christ, is not so affected in heart and soul as if he were about to be brought before that judgment at any moment, and suddenly shudders with such fear as if the sentence of the Judge were being pronounced against him? For this illustrious and holy man expressed and set before the eyes of all the future judgment of God so accurately and fully that for its comprehension nothing else seems to be lacking except that the thing itself be enacted and take place before our eyes.
NoteCHAPTER IV.
The habitation and learning of St. Ephrem.
[15] Since therefore the Blessed One was always occupied with such thoughts concerning judgment, he fled the world and all that is in it. The desired solitude; He withdrew far away in flight, as is found written, and remained in solitude, being free for God and for himself, and thence carrying away the rewards of his virtues. Ps. 54:8 For he had already rightly learned that those who embrace the solitary life are freed from the turbulent disturbances and storms of this world, and arrive happily at the harbor of rest and tranquility, where they enjoy the company of Angels; and with minds uplifted, are caught up as far as is permitted to the contemplation of God. When moreover the Spirit, admonishing him, was so disposing him for the edification of many that he should change places, when God commanded, he left it: he did not resist, but humbly obeyed: for he was obedient to the commands and mandates of God, if anyone ever was. Thence, like that divine Abraham when commanded, he sought the city which had produced him -- that of the Edessenes: for it was not fitting that the sun should be hidden under the earth any longer. For these reasons he went thither: to visit the holy places there, and to meet some wise man, and either to gain for himself the fruit of knowledge or to provide it for others.
[16] When therefore he had arrived at that city and was already entering the gate, instead of the wise man whom he had desired, a harlot came his way. Having unexpectedly fallen upon this most disagreeable spectacle, as though cast down from his own hope, he turned away his eyes. But the shameless woman, on the contrary, was gazing at him with her eyes fixed upon him. Ephrem said to her: "O woman, tell me, why do you look at me so intently?" And she answered readily: "Because I, being a woman, am from you, the man; he profited even from a harlot's apt apophthegm: but you do not even glance at me, but turn your eyes back to the earth, from which you were taken." The holy and prudent man confessed that this unexpected answer had greatly profited him. Wherefore he praised the infinite power of God, who sometimes bestows upon us, beyond our hope, the very things we hope for.
[17] Thence, when led by the Divine Spirit he had gone to Caesarea of Cappadocia, he saw and came to know there that very mouth of the Church, that golden nightingale of teaching, Basil. The old man, beholding him, began to venerate him with many auspicious words. Having seen a dove suggesting to Basil what to say: For with the keen eye of his mind he perceived a resplendent dove sitting upon his right shoulder, supplying words of wisdom, and Basil himself setting them forth to the people. Instructed by that lofty and venerable dove, Basil had learned of the pilgrimage of this holy Father and that he was that Ephrem the Syrian. Most opportunely, therefore, the two enjoyed mutual acquaintance with each other, mutual recognition: so that that laborious pilgrimage was not without fruit for Ephrem.
[18] Moreover, the innocence of his natural life showed him the way to flee evils: for from it he learned both to look forward to better things and to avoid worse ones, and to choose those thoughts and principles which were pure, which contributed to the cultivation of virtue, and which in no way impeded the practice of teaching. His supreme eloquence, For the talent of speech had been abundantly granted by Christ to the holy elder, which, although it was shared with many at the tables of their hearts, yet profited him especially. Moreover, it is reported that he said these things about himself: that when he first passed beyond that tender age of boyhood, the following kind of secret vision occurred to him: (a vision of a vine shown to him as a boy in advance, for a very fruitful vine seemed to grow beside his tongue, which indeed so increased that it filled the whole world; and all the birds of the sky came and ate of its fruit; and the vine itself, the more birds it received plucking its fruits, the more abundantly it abounded in clusters.
[19] Furthermore, another man of keen sight testified that he had discovered this concerning him: and to another, namely, a host of Angels descending from heaven, holding in their hands a scroll written on the inside and outside. And this holy company appeared to converse thus: "Who, do you think, will receive this scroll into his hands?" a book seen given by the Angels) And some answered this one, others that one, and still others another from among the most outstanding men of that time; but then, after testing all, they added: "These men are indeed holy and ministers of God; but they are unable to receive this scroll into their hands." And when they had now named various persons among those then living, and none of them had been satisfactory, at last by the common consent of all they came together upon this judgment: that by no one else could this scroll be taken in hand except by Ephrem the Syrian. Then the same person is reported to have seen the heavenly Angels deliver the scroll to Ephrem; and rising in the night, instructed by that vision, he went to the church; and having heard Ephrem himself, who then had a distinguished oration full of grace, he recognized what that vision signified, and praised God, and marveled at so splendid a gift of speech given to the holy man. For God had bestowed upon him so great an abundance of wisdom that, however much perpetual fountains of words, as it were, were available to him, they were by no means equal to the things to be explained. Yet scarcely equal to the swiftness of his thought. And this came about not so much from slowness of tongue as from swiftness of thought: for his tongue equaled the power of thinking in others, yet it was too slow to keep up with his own ideas. Whence the great elder besought from God a singular gift of speaking, in these words: "Grant, O Lord, the floods of Your grace" -- since the depth of his teaching was swallowing up his tongue, so that he could not express the thoughts of his mind, when the instruments suitable for speaking eloquently were failing the office of preaching.
NotesCHAPTER V.
Discourses. Austerity of life.
[20] His discourses, moreover, nothing but prayer interrupted; Constancy in preaching and praying, and discourses in turn interrupted his prayer; tears received these, and prayers in turn received the tears. And his speech was speech upon speech, or, to speak more properly, in speech he was continually occupied with the contemplation of divine things. For he had so consumed his body that, obeying reason as its mistress, it had no more sensation of pleasure than if it were dead. And while, previously tamed by hunger and abstinence for performing those things which are unfitting, it lay motionless and languid, abstinence, yet for accomplishing those things which contribute to the salvation of souls, it excelled in strength. What, moreover, that not even the nights, often deceiving with their phantoms and images of dreams, interrupted in him the course of virtue and piety? For the nights found him sober when they came upon him, and left him vigilant when they departed, diligently taking care lest the hand of the prince of darkness should find him overwhelmed by sleep. He gave so much time to rest, however, as he deemed necessary for carrying on life, vigils, lest, the natural alternation being entirely removed, the flesh should sustain a violent dissolution. Among the various things that drove sleep from his eyes, this was foremost: that leading a rough and hard life and afflicting his body in many ways, sleeping on the ground: he also slept on the ground. For by these means especially is the inclination to sleep accustomed to be shaken off.
[21] He maintained, moreover, as great a poverty as you hear even the holy Apostles themselves had. Poverty: Wherefore, if anyone should call him a model for those who cultivate poverty, he would by no means depart from the truth. He left us indeed that most sweet and truly blessed voice, as a teacher of poverty, when about to depart hence to heaven, in which he said: "Neither purse, nor money-box, nor wallet did Ephrem ever have. Never did I possess gold, or silver, or any other thing upon the earth. For I heard the good King saying to His disciples in the Gospel: 'Possess nothing upon the earth.'" Matt. 10:9 "Wherefore no desire for such things seized me." Since therefore he was a despiser of glory and money, and loved superior things, he strove to approach as closely as possible to the Apostles themselves in his course.
[22] And why should I mention the submission and humility of his soul, when that very virtue, everywhere in all his discourses and writings, somehow proclaims that it was singularly cultivated by him? Humility, For when did his foot ever strike against the stone of arrogance and pride -- he who provoked tears upon tears, and ate ashes as bread, and in his rough and cheerless life (as those sacred words resound) mixed his drink with weeping? And who, abhorring all vain and worldly glory, horror of praise, while he still sojourned in this life, if he noticed himself being praised by anyone, bore it with a troubled spirit, and changing color from one to another, and lowering his eyes to the ground, broke out in a fine and subtle sweat, and was seized by a deep silence, as if modesty were impeding his tongue. Ps. 101:10 And now, about to depart hence to that blessed and heavenly life, forbidding this very thing with a solemn prohibition, he said: "Sing no hymns for Ephrem; forbidden even by testament: and employ no panegyric. Do not bury me in a precious garment; nor erect a private tomb for my body. For it is agreed between me and God that I should dwell among strangers. For I am a sojourner and a stranger, as all my fathers were." As therefore of other virtues, so also of this one you have outstanding and illustrious tokens.
CHAPTER VI.
Works of mercy. Struggle with heretics.
[23] For of those things which pertain to almsgiving and the disposition of compassion, the disposition of mercy in him; the rule and law of truth itself confirms that he was not merely a practitioner but also a teacher. For although, by reason of the perfect poverty which he had embraced, he had nothing remaining to bestow upon the needy, yet by frequent exhortations, moving others to works of mercy, he dispensed alms. For his speech, even when his face was not seen, works persuaded upon others, was like a divinely crafted key, unlocking the treasures of the rich and supplying necessities to the indigent. And his angelic appearance was sufficient by words and by his mere countenance alone: by itself, without any speech, to move to compassion those who beheld him, even the rustic and inhuman: so great in him was the simplicity, the gentleness, the integrity that was perceived. And no one was found so shameless that, beholding him, he was not suffused with a certain blush of modesty, and did not become better and more temperate than he had been.
[24] And although so many things were perfected in this man, let no one on that account suppose that he lacked thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs. "For what leisure," someone might say, "would he have to be divided among so many pursuits of virtue?" Assuredly he was not slightly imbued with the knowledge of divine things. For he did not attain to it only so far as to be able to instruct others by speaking, but he thoroughly mastered both the teachings of piety and learning, and those things which oppose them, zeal against heretics: the former for instructing the people, the latter for refuting heretics. For with a righteous zeal he was borne against those beasts hostile to piety. Indeed, in a certain discourse which came down to us by fame rather than by writings, whence it could easily be understood that he was most zealous for the truth, he called Apollinaris frivolous, indeed demented and insane, who, contriving novelties, belching forth many impious things contrary to Sacred Scripture, comprehended in two books from his own stomach, spoke most ineptly and rashly. Those books, moreover, he had entrusted for safekeeping to a certain woman whom he was reported to have kept in luxury.
When these things had become known to Ephrem, he himself, pretending to be of the same opinion, approached the woman who was guarding those profane books; and he revealed to her who he was and what glad tidings he brought her from the desert; and adding perhaps certain other things of this kind, he at length asked that she show him the writings of the master for the sake of public benefit, so that he might more effectively combat us -- whom he then called heretics. The books of Apollinaris, connected with glue by a good stratagem; Taken in by these words, the woman, reckoning him to be one of those who upheld the party of Apollinaris, provided the books, yet begging that they be returned to her speedily. But this great Jacob, supplanting the demented Esau and seizing those disgraceful birthrights, prudently overpowered him: for smearing all the pages with fish glue, he joined leaf to leaf in such a way that, since one side could not at all be separated from the other on account of the firm bond, each book appeared reduced to a single tablet, as it were. And so he returned them to the woman from whom he had received them on loan. She indeed, being ignorant of such an artifice, as a woman would be, since she saw their external form intact, neglected to inspect more carefully what was within.
[25] Not many days had elapsed when the holy elder urged certain Orthodox men to summon Apollinaris and hold discussions with him. Accepting the challenge, trusting in those impious books, he came on the appointed day; and to speak on his own behalf he declined, since he was now pressed by heavy old age; and he therefore requested that his books be brought forth, so that from them he could respond and contradict. When therefore his followers had produced the books in public, proudly boasting on account of them, that man old in evil days, an unjust judge, taking one of them in his hands, was trying to open and unfold it. And he himself was deluded by the deed, But since, being coated with glue, it would not yield, he attempted to open its middle portion and found that likewise glued in the same manner. Therefore, frustrated in his hope from the first book, he turned to the second, which, finding the whole so firmly bonded together that it could by no means be unfolded, he was suffused with such redness and shame of face, and his mind was so disturbed, distressed, and seized by illness, that departing from that assembly, as if bereft of mind and counsel and struck lifeless, he fell into illness; and he bore that mark of ignominy so painfully and grievously that very little was wanting before he died.
[26] Such then in his zeal for piety was our great Father and Doctor St. Ephrem. The labors of St. Ephrem for the faith. For at one time showing himself gentle and mild, when no necessity of contending pressed upon him, and at another time severe and stern, when danger to the faith threatened, he wisely moderated all things according to the demands of the occasion. And on account of this zeal toward God, he is to be commended no less than for his many fasts, and tears, and continual prayers; and I am not sure whether he is not to be commended even more for this reason: that those things were concluded in him alone, while the latter pertained also to the common good. For just as the true quality of some distinguished hunter is displayed when he pursues warlike beasts, and the virtue of a good helmsman reveals itself in an adverse storm, and that of a prudent physician in more serious illnesses, and that of a brave soldier in the very crisis of battle: so also a man zealous for piety and religion is shown by great and difficult dangers, when he delivers both himself and others from snares and perils.
NotesCHAPTER VII.
Imitation of the Holy Fathers.
[27] There was assuredly no kind of virtue cultivated by the ancients in which he did not also excel. Wherefore we may liken his soul, overflowing with usefulness, sweetness, and delight, to a fountain flowing with every abundance of waters, or to a meadow resplendent with various fragrant flowers, or to a sky adorned with the varied lights of the stars, or to Paradise by a most beautiful imitation -- which you hear was in Eden -- decorated with an innumerable abundance of fruit-bearing trees (yet in such a way that the malignant serpent, the author of our common exile, is given absolutely no access to it), or if nature has graced anything else beautiful and pleasant with many and various goods; such also consider the blessed soul of the great Ephrem, adorned on every side with many kinds of virtues. For that man, worthy of admiration, always applied himself to this care: to possess a perfect and complete choir of every kind of virtue; and those excellences in which others individually surpassed, he alone should attain them all. For as a priest, the virtues of the Patriarchs expressed, imitating Abel, who is reckoned first among the just, he did not offer sacrifices to the Lord from flocks of sheep, nor from their fat; but without blood, he sacrificed a rational service in the purity of his life -- dissimilar to Abel only in this: that he was not slain by a wicked murderer, as Abel was; of Abel, but avoiding the snares of the hostile demon and overcoming his plots, he arrived, like Abel, at a life without end. Enos, He emulated the hope of Enos in such a way that he not only called upon the name of the Lord his God, but also taught others to invoke the same. Enoch, He strove to be made like Enoch, not indeed by emulating his marvelous translation and removal from earth to Paradise, but his transition from the disturbance of matter to spirit. Noah, He was also like Noah, not indeed providing a modest preservation of the race in a wooden ark, but rather securing his own soul's safety, so that, more safely escaping the storms of life, he might suffer no shipwreck of virtue.
[28] Of Abraham, He was also an emulator of Abraham in many things: and to pass over his faith, gentleness, and love of God, especially in this: that just as Abraham fled his own land and kindred, so also our Ephrem fled the world, and expressed in his own body the sacrifice of the Only-begotten, consecrating himself to God and mortifying his members which are upon the earth. Isaac, He was an imitator of Isaac, on account of the death which he was ready to undergo with a prompt and tranquil mind -- though not at a father's hand: indeed, daily, like the Apostle, he received fruit in body, as far as his purpose was concerned, and in spirit he lived to God, on account of the chaste sacrifice of his body as in a ram. Jacob, He was an emulator of Jacob, by supplanting Esau himself -- that is, the father of heresies -- and receiving the birthright, that is, the right decrees of the Church: moreover, in this: that he beheld not a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, but an elongated pillar of fire indicating a more beautiful depth of mystery; and that, when about to depart from this life, he imparted blessings to his disciples, just as Jacob did to his sons -- blessings which he who received them on bended knee judged to be those of that great Jacob. Joseph, But he expressed the likeness of Joseph most of all by the integrity of his life and the chastity of his body; and much more through this: that just as Joseph shared grain, so this man shared the word of salvation.
[29] Of Moses, He also showed himself most similar to Moses in not a few things: for he too fled Pharaoh the devil, and dwelt in solitude, and saw God insofar as He can be seen by contemplation; and he accomplished wondrous things, and by his teaching showed himself a guide and master to the people; and he deceived the Egyptians, carrying off their riches -- namely the books of the heretics, over which he himself triumphed. He also divided the salt and undrinkable sea of unbelief, and brought the faithful people across in great numbers; and the army of Pharaoh -- namely the impious offspring of slanderers -- he overthrew and crushed. And Amalek (if you wish to call one of the heretics by that name) he put to flight and routed. He received from God the law of living well and in a Christian manner, and delivered it to all of us. He contemplated the pattern of the Tabernacle on the mountain -- not of Moses, but of that fearful future judgment. He appointed priests, and delivered laws and precepts concerning sacrifice. He drew water from the rock, when he moved hearts of stone to shed tears. With heavenly bread, as Moses did, he abundantly fed the people, setting before us discourses of charity, by which minds are most greatly strengthened and kindled to receive with confidence this divine and sacred bread, which came hither for our salvation from the bosom of the Father. He also provided quails for the faithful, as Moses did, showing how through the remembrance of God they should lift themselves up to heaven and contemplate the beautiful things that are there. And in this manner, if you should wish to compare the things which this Father gravely and vigorously accomplished with the deeds of the ancients, you will find him in no way inferior to them.
[30] Joshua, For he himself, like Joshua son of Nun, also divided the Jordan, when he opened the closed hands of the rich with generosity; Of Samuel, and he distributed to the people the land, not indeed of this lowly promise, but of the heavenly kingdom. From his infancy, like Samuel, he was consecrated to God, and heard the divine voice, as Samuel did. Of Elijah, Like Elijah, he convicted the priests of turpitude, and brought down divine fire upon the sacrifice of prayer, not once but many times; and on the fiery chariot of virtues he was carried up, not into the air, but into heaven itself. Of Elisha, Like Elisha, he obtained a double grace of the Spirit. Like the Prophets, he was endowed with the gift and grace of divine vision. Of John the Baptist, Indeed, reason itself moves me to dare to compare this very man even with him, than whom none born of women is said to have been greater -- with him, I say, who stood between the law and grace. For he, like that Forerunner, cultivated the desert; and the word of God came to him also; and acting as a herald of repentance, he taught those who came to him to confess their sins. Of Paul, Like Paul, moreover, that vessel of election, he endured various tribulations and temptations; and he diligently scattered the seeds of repentance, as Paul did those of faith.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Testament. Death. Miracles.
[31] But what need is there to compare him individually with the Saints, when the whole world is full of his upright deeds? A more prolix discourse would be superfluous, when the works themselves are sufficiently apparent, and a multitude of words seems to weaken credibility -- as if the virtues were not sufficiently declared by the deeds themselves, but still needed the aid of speech. [The commandment of the dying man, that the expense of his funeral be given to the poor:] Wherefore it will be worthwhile to add to this discourse, as a most pleasant seasoning, his illustrious and almost miraculous departure from this mortal life. About to proceed to heaven, therefore, this holy man commanded those who were then present that they should not bury his body in a precious garment; and if any friend of the Father had thought or prepared anything of this sort, he should not carry it out, but changing his plan for the better, should bestow upon the poor that very thing which he had determined to spend on honoring the burial.
[32] When therefore one of those present, a man of exceptional nobility, one who was thinking of not obeying, had prepared a garment of great value with which to clothe the body of the holy elder for burial, upon hearing his rebuke he was grieved and, reckoning it better in his mind if he should give to the needy as great an amount of money as the garment had cost in place of it, he deferred giving the prepared garment to the poor. Wherefore he was immediately seized by the malignant demon, because he had not obeyed the commands, and paid most grievous penalties; and casting himself before the bed on which the holy man lay, and therefore seized by a demon, his mouth foaming fervently, he tore himself apart. The most merciful man of God, turning to this wretched one, said: "What, O man, have you done, that you should be cast into this peril?" The man, roused by the elder's command, although the evil demon had spread darkness over his mind, disclosed the secret purpose which he had conceived within himself of not obeying his instructions. The most benign man, having compassion on the man's confession, the cure: by the laying on of his holy hands and by prayers immediately freed the man from that affliction and restored him to his former health, and addressed him thus: "Accomplish, O man, what you promised a while ago."
[33] When this miracle had been demonstrated, as the end of his life now drew near, he exhorted those who were then present, with many pious admonitions, to the pursuit and love of virtue, as his last words declare; The death of St. Ephrem: he departed happily to the tranquil harbor of the eternal kingdom, and by his holy and God-pleasing addition, he increased the number of the Blessed who had been from the beginning of the world. For his soul took its seat in the celestial tabernacles, where are the orders of Angels, where are the peoples of the Patriarchs, where are the choirs of the Prophets, where are the thrones of the Apostles, where is the joy of the Martyrs, of his soul, where are the delights of the pious, where is the splendor of the Doctors, where are the celebrated assemblies of the firstborn, where are the pure voices of those who exult, where those good things lie open which the Angels desire to behold. To that holy place the most blessed soul of the illustrious and blessed Father Ephrem arrived. I believe, moreover, that when he himself ascended into heaven, with virtues accompanying him, each of the virtues which he had cultivated in this life went before him and showed him those hidden and most beautiful things which cannot be perceived by mortal eyes; and that charity, the most excellent of all, approaching his soul, spoke thus: "Behold, beloved soul, the beauty which I have prepared for you"; and at the same time showed its delights. And next, Humility, running to meet it, addressed it thus: entering into heaven. "Look, O soul dear to God, what manner of place of rest I have adorned for you." Then all the rest, one by one, reviewed and displayed the rewards which they had been preparing for the future ever since they were still being cultivated and exercised by the soul in the body. O departure to be celebrated and most worthy of imitation! O death not needing tears! O separation that brings about a desired fellowship! O passage that brings no regret to the one passing! O funeral, free from all pain and trouble! For while we look up to his character, we receive consolation therefrom. For the death of other men provides a reason for weeping to those who are left behind; but the death of the Saints brings us joy and celebration. Wherefore this should not be called death, but rather a passage and an emigration hence to a better life.
[34] These are the things which my bold tongue offers to you, O best of Fathers and most illustrious Doctor of the world, as praises and tributes, like poor little gifts -- not indeed according to your dignity, nor as to one who has need, Why were these things written? (for what glory can a speech confer that is plainly surpassed by the merits of the one praised?) -- but rather for the benefit of the living: for the praises of good and outstanding men bring the greatest consolation and encouragement toward better things to most people. We have undertaken this task of praising more eagerly, being led by various other reasons, beyond the fame of your life and teaching most celebrated throughout the whole world, and especially by that care which you showed in freeing a man of the same name. To a captive who invoked him. For he impelled us to undertake this burden -- he who, captured by the descendants of Ishmael in war and dwelling for a long time far from his homeland, when he now desired to return to it and did not know the way, by your singular aid found a fitting means of salvation and obtained what he had long desired. For when he had been brought into the greatest peril of his life (since all the roads were blocked by the forces of the barbarians), he invoked you by name only, saying: "Holy Ephrem, come to my aid." And so he safely escaped the snares of dangers and disregarded the fear of death, and having obtained an unhoped-for deliverance, An unexpected return to his own people was granted, he was restored to his homeland, beyond all hope, fortified by your protection. Therefore, having embarked more boldly upon this narration, we have not feared to touch your praises with impure lips. In which matter, if we have made any progress, we shall confess that we attained it by your help and shall attribute it to you; but if our praises are far inferior to your dignity, we shall say that you too (although this may perhaps seem a rather bold statement) were the cause -- you who, both living and dead, by your modesty and zeal for humility, impede those who desire to praise you. Nevertheless, whether it be the one or the other, we have satisfied the duty of piety as far as our powers have permitted; and we trust that you will by no means be angered at us for this, nor turn away those most loving of you, but will admit with an equitable and benevolent spirit the praises of your stammering children.
[35] But you, now standing before the divine altar and the Prince of Life, The Author implores his patronage, and sacrificing together with the Angels to the most holy Trinity, remember all of us and obtain for us pardon of our sins, that we may enjoy the eternal blessedness of the heavenly kingdom; in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory with the Father without beginning, and the Holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
NotesLIFE OF ST. EPHREM
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,
translated by Gerardus Vossius.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
[1] This our Holy Father Ephrem, of Eastern origin, a Syrian by race, was born of pious parents in Edessa. Whence was Ephrem? When was he born? He lived in the times of Constantine the Great and of the others who reigned after him, abstaining from boyhood from every evil thing. While he was still a boy, his parents beheld in a dream a vision: how great he would become was shown in advance: that from the mouth of Ephrem himself a very fruitful vine ascended, which grew and filled every region under heaven. And all the birds of the sky came and ate of the fruit of the vine, and beyond what they ate, the fruit still remained in abundance. From the age of youth he dwelt in the desert, he dwells in the desert: claiming for himself an abyss of compunction, through which he received the divine grace of the Holy Spirit.
[2] Concerning him, a certain man inspired by the divine spirit saw in a dream a fearsome man holding a scroll of paper and was asking: "Who, do you think, can receive and keep it?" And a voice came to him: "No one else he draws knowledge from heaven, except Ephrem, my servant." And when he stood by and opened his mouth and devoured it, immediately a fountain of discourses proceeding from God gushed forth, full of compunction and repentance, recalling the fear of judgment and of the second coming in majesty of the King and Lord of all, Jesus Christ, our true God, to render to each one according to his works. Furthermore, he also committed to books the rectitude and truth of divine doctrines.
[3] Another holy elder, again in a vision, saw hosts of Angels descending from the heavens at divine command and holding in their hands a scroll -- that is, a volume written inside and outside. And they said among themselves: "To whom should this book be entrusted?" And one named this person, and others named others. But others answered, saying: "These men are truly holy and just; but this scroll can be entrusted to no one because he was gentle and humble: except to Ephrem, the gentle and humble of heart." And the elder saw that they had delivered the scroll to the Holy Ephrem. And rising in the morning, he heard from his mouth most apt discourses for the instruction of others, flowing as from a fountain gushing forth, full of all compunction and fear of God. And the elder recognized that those things which flowed from his mouth were suggested by the Holy Spirit.
[4] This our Holy Father Ephrem was seized with a desire to visit the city of the Edessenes, he goes to Edessa, and he prayed to God, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, deign to let me see that city, and when I enter, may I be worthy to meet a man of such a kind who will begin a conversation with me from Scripture." For the sake of spiritual instruction. And as he was now entering the place and passing through the gate of the city, there met him a woman who was a harlot in the city. When the servant of God Ephrem saw her, he was grieved, speaking thus to himself: "Lord Jesus Christ, You have despised the prayers of Your servant Ephrem: for how shall this woman discuss Scripture with me?" But the harlot stopped and gazed at him. The Saint said to her: "Tell me, girl, why do you stand there and gaze at me so intently with your eyes?" The harlot answered and said to him: "I gaze at you because I, being a woman, was taken from you, a man. But you should not gaze at me, but at the earth, He is taught by a harlot he meets to look at the earth: from which you, a man, were taken." When the servant of God Ephrem heard this, he looked up and glorified God, who had given her such wisdom that he should receive such an answer from her. And he knew that his prayer had by no means been scorned by God; and coming into the city, he lodged there.
[5] Now by chance another harlot lived near his lodging. When he had been staying in the city for several days, she said to him: "Bless me, Lord Abba." And fixing his eyes, he saw her looking through a window another who was inviting him to sin, and said to her: "God bless you." And she said to him: "What is lacking in your enclosure and dwelling?" The Saint answered: "Three stones and a little clay, that the window through which you are peering may be blocked up." And she replied, saying: "From the very first time I address you, you rebuff me. I desire to sleep with you, and you exclude me even from conversation!" The servant of God Ephrem answered her and said: "If you wish to sleep with me, come where I shall tell you, so that we may sleep there together." The harlot said to him: "Tell me the place, and I will come." And the Saint said to her: "If you desire to sleep with me, you cannot do so in any other place than in the middle of the city." And she answered and said to him: "Shall we not blush at the sight of men?" And the great Ephrem answered and said to her: "If we blush before men, the presence of God impressed upon her, how much more ought we both to blush before and to fear God, who knows even the hidden things of men -- for He it is who will come to judge the world and to render to each one according to his works." He converts her. When the harlot heard this, she was struck with compunction at his words; and approaching, she fell before his feet, weeping and saying: "Servant of God, lead me into the way of salvation, that I may be freed from my many evils and wicked works." The holy elder, admonishing her at length from Sacred Scripture and confirming her repentance, sent her to a monastery and saved her soul from the mire of vices.
[6] He goes to Caesarea. And departing from that city, he came to Caesarea of Cappadocia, where, entering the church, he found St. Basil the Archbishop preaching to the people; and the most blessed Ephrem began to extol him with a loud voice. But certain ones in the crowd said: "Who is this stranger who so praises the Bishop? Surely he flatters him, so that the Bishop may bestow something upon him." When the sermon was now finished, Basil said: "Summon to me the man who was persisting in praising me." And when he had been summoned, Basil said to him: "Why were you crying out so insistently praising me, Lord Ephrem?" The holy elder answered and said: "I persevered in crying out he sees a dove suggesting to St. Basil what to preach, and praising you because I was beholding an immaculate dove standing on your right shoulder and suggesting in your ears the things you were preaching to the people." And the great Basil, full of the Holy Spirit, recognized him and said to him: "Are you Ephrem the Syrian? Truly, as I understood, so I have found in you, a lover of quiet. It is written in the Prophet David: 'Ephrem is the strength of my head.'" Ps. 59 and 107 "For your gentleness and clemency and simplicity are manifest, like a light appearing to all."
[7] Elsewhere again, when the Holy Ephrem was passing through, a harlot fraudulently approached him, another who wanted to provoke him to either fornication or anger, who was trying by flattery to draw him into shameful intercourse, or failing that, at least to move him to indignation, since no one had ever seen him angry. He said to her: "Follow me." When he was now approaching a place frequented by a great throng of the city, he said to her: "In this place, come and let us do as you desire." But she, seeing the crowd, said to him: "How can we do this here, in the presence of so many people? Are we not ashamed?" He impresses upon her the presence of God. And he said to her: "If you blush before men, how much more ought one to blush before God, who exposes the hidden things of darkness?" And she, confounded, went away without accomplishing her purpose, being unable to prevail upon him in anything, nor even to provoke him to anger.
[8] And these are the combats of the Great Ephrem. For he was a man merciful and patient, gentle, pure and simple, in divine knowledge as if free from all pretense, according to what is written, lowly and modest, humble and full of compunction, beyond belief, so that even while he remained silent, he seemed to teach those who beheld him by his mere appearance alone. Job 1 He was wholly intent upon pouring forth prayers to God. Even by his mere appearance alone he teaches the people. This our Holy Father, therefore, after a life well and blessedly spent, and after showing himself a model of divine virtue and setting forth very many discourses of holy teaching, foreknowing his own death, composed a testament to his disciples he composes a testament, and to all the monks, warning them concerning things to come; and so, being slightly ill, he rested in the Lord and was committed to burial by the monks of the desert.
[9] By the prayers and intercession therefore of the Holy Ephrem, may Christ our God deign to make us sinners also imitators of his divine life, The author implores his prayers, through which we may obtain mercy and remission of our sins into which we have fallen. For to Christ Himself, our God, belongs all honor and adoration, with the Father, and the Holy and life-giving Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.
NotesCONCERNING OUR HOLY FATHER EPHREM
from the Life of St. Basil the Great, by (as is commonly believed) St. Amphilochius, from ancient Latin manuscripts.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
BHL Number: 1023, 2565
From the Life of St. Basil by St. Amphilochius.
CHAPTER I (in the manuscripts, XIV).
The meeting of Saints Basil and Ephrem.
[1] Brethren, I wish to give an account concerning the memorable Basil and Ephrem the Syrian -- St. Ephrem sees in the Spirit St. Basil as a pillar of fire: things which are with God concerning our Father the seer, which I also heard from his holy and truthful mouth. And it is thus. The memorable Ephrem, while he was in a certain desert, being illuminated by the splendor of the Holy Spirit, seeing a certain one of his lovers, and learning by inquiry the marvelous works of our blessed Father Basil, was ceaselessly asking that it be revealed to him what manner of man the great Basil was. Being therefore in ecstasy, he saw a pillar of fire, whose top reached to heaven, and he heard a voice from above saying: "Ephrem, Ephrem, as you have seen this pillar of fire, such is the great Basil." And immediately, taking an interpreter (because he did not know how to speak the Greek language), he came to the great church of the great name of Caesarea. He goes to Caesarea. Arriving on the very holy festival of the holy Theophany, and entering secretly, he saw the great Basil proceeding into the church and said to the one following him: "We have labored in vain, as I suspect, Brother. For this man, being in such an order, is not as I saw him." Seeing his splendor in the sacred rites, For he saw him dressed in a white stole, and the sacred Clergy around him clothed in white. And as Basil proceeded, standing in a hidden place of the church, he despaired on account of such a matter, saying to himself: "We who have borne the burden of the day and the heat he doubts his holiness: have achieved nothing; and this man, being in such retinue and human honor, is a pillar of fire! I am amazed."
[2] While he was speaking thus, the Saint sent his Archdeacon, saying: "Go to the western gate, he is divinely made known to him: and in a corner of the church you will find an Abbot wearing a cowl, with another person, with a small beard, of short stature" -- and the rest about his appearance -- "and you will say to him: Come, enter the sanctuary; your Father the Archbishop calls you." And the Blessed Ephrem, learning through the interpreter what was said, answered, saying: "You have made a mistake, Brother; we are strangers." And the Archdeacon went away and reported these things to the Blessed One. While the great Basil was reading the sacred books, he sees him speaking with a tongue of fire: the Holy Ephrem saw a tongue of fire speaking through his mouth. And the Saint said to the Archdeacon: "Go and say to him: Lord Ephrem, come, enter the holy sanctuary." The Saint was therefore astonished at these things, and glorifying God and bending his knee, he answered, saying: "Truly great is Basil, truly Basil is a pillar of fire, truly the Holy Spirit speaks through his mouth." He asked therefore the Archdeacon to excuse him, and that he might rather greet him after the liturgy in the sacristy.
[3] After the completion of the liturgy, therefore, the great Basil entered the sacristy, summoned the Holy Ephrem, he is kindly received by him: and gave him greeting in the Lord, saying: "Welcome, O Father of the sons of the desert! Welcome, you who have multiplied the disciples of Christ therein and have cast out demons in Christ. What is the occasion of your labor, O Father? You have come to see a sinful man. May God give you a reward according to your labor." And the most honorable Ephrem answered him, and foretelling all the things that were in his heart to be cultivated, together with his companion the Abbot he received communion from his holy hands. And when Basil was showing them hospitality, the Holy Ephrem said: "Most honorable Father,
I ask one favor of you; grant that it be given to me." Basil said to him: "Command; say what seems good to you. For I owe you much, especially for your labor in coming into my presence." The most honorable Ephrem said to him: "I know, holy Father, that whatever you ask of God, He will grant you, and I wish you to pray to God that I may speak Greek." Basil replied: "You have asked beyond my power. But since you have asked in faith, come, most honorable Father and master of the desert, let us beseech the Lord. For He is able to do your will. For it is written: 'He will do the will of those who fear Him, and He will hear their prayer, and will save them.'" Ps. 144:16 And after praying for a long time, when they rose, the great Basil said: "Why, Lord Ephrem, do you not accept ordination to the presbyterate, since it befits you?" The Holy Ephrem said to him through the interpreter: "Because I am a sinner." The Saint answered: "Would that I had your sins!" He is ordained a priest by him. And he said to him: "Let us bow the knee." And as they lay upon the ground, the great priest laid his hand upon the Holy Ephrem and said the prayers of the Deacon, and said to him: "Command, make us rise." He obtains the grace of speaking Greek. His tongue being therefore opened, the Holy Ephrem said in the Greek language: "Receive, save, have mercy, and preserve us, O God, by Your grace." Then was fulfilled what is written: "Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall be opened." Isa. 35:6 And when he spoke Greek, in that very hour they glorified God Almighty, who hears the petition of those who pray and who fear Him. And rejoicing spiritually for three days, the holy priest, having ordained the interpreter a Deacon and Ephrem himself a Presbyter, dismissed them in peace, glorifying God in all things which they had heard and seen, as had been spoken to them.
Notesp. Surius explains: "and when he had learned all the things that in his heart were to be cultivated." Ursus, "and telling all the things that were turning over in his heart." In Greek: Kai exeipon panta ta en te kardia autou georgethenta, kai lelegmena to synonti auto Abba. Gratius: "He narrated in detail all the things he had thought in his mind and had discussed with his companion the Abbot."
q. In Greek: metelaben eis tas hagias autou cheiras. Ursus translates, "he communicated into his holy hands." Combefis: "He received Communion into his sacred hands." The ancient version is more pleasing: "from [his] hands" or "through [his] hands."
r. In Greek: poiesantos autou agapen. Gratius translates: "when the Agape, or sacred banquet, was concluded." Surius: "and when he had received them with a banquet." Combefis: "and Basil receiving them with a banquet, in the spirit of hospitality."
s. Surius: "and he ordained him a Deacon." For what other prayer of the Deacon, asks Combefis, than the one of ordination? Perhaps that prayer: "Let us bow the knee." By commanding that Ephrem respond to it, laying on his hand at the same time, he obtained for him the faculty of speaking Greek.
CHAPTER II (in the manuscripts, XVI).
Sins remitted to a certain person through the merits of Saints Basil and Ephrem.
[4] A certain woman, adorned with riches and nobility, and raised above all other vain ministrations of this life, as though embracing widowhood, A woman devoted to luxury used her power disgracefully, serving herself up to gluttony and extravagance, possessing nothing pleasing to God, but, in the manner of swine, rolling herself in the filth of pleasure. At some point late in life, according to the dispensation of God, returning to her senses, being enlightened, she silently pondered by herself the immeasurability of her offenses, and sighing tearfully at the multitude of her sins, she said: "Woe to me, a sinner and a prodigal! She comes to her senses. How shall I excuse myself for the crimes I have committed? I have corrupted the temple of the Spirit, and polluted the soul dwelling in my body. Woe to me, most abject! Shall I, do you think, call myself like the harlot of old, or like the Publican? But no one has sinned as I have, especially after holy baptism. How then shall I be certain that God will receive me as a penitent?" And while she was thinking these things, He who wills all to be saved she writes all the sins of her whole life, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, put it in her mind to write her sins from youth even unto old age on a sheet. Having written them out, she wrote last of all that which was her greatest sin, and seals it, and sealed it with lead.
[5] Considering then an opportune time when St. Basil was going to the holy church for his customary prayers, she ran secretly and cast the sheet beside his feet, and throwing herself upon her face, she cried out saying: "Have mercy on me, O holy one of God, a sinner above all." And offers it to St. Basil, The blessed servant of Christ, standing there, inquired of her the cause of her grief. She said: "Behold, Lord, I have written all my sins on this sheet, and my iniquities, and I have sealed it. But you, O holy one of God, do not remove the seal, that he may blot them out by his prayers: but only blot them out through your prayer. For He who gave me such a thought will assuredly hear you interceding for me." The great Basil, taking up the sheet and looking toward heaven, said: "Lord, this is Your work alone. For You who take away the sin of the world can more easily blot out the sin of even one soul. For all our offenses are numbered before You; but Your mercy is immeasurable and unsearchable." And saying this, he entered the church holding the sheet, and prostrating himself and placing the sheet beside the altar, he remained through the entire vigil praying, and the next day throughout the entire holy liturgy beseeching God. And after the completion of the holy mysteries, all are blotted out by his long prayer except one: he privately summoned the woman, a few clerics standing by, and showing her the sheet, said to her: "Have you heard, woman, that no one can forgive sins but God alone?" She said: "I have heard, elder, and for this reason I have brought you to the intercession of the most merciful God." And saying this, she opened the sheet and found it entirely blank. But the wicked deed of the great sin remained not blotted out.
[6] When the woman saw this, she became faint-hearted. And striking her breast with her hands, she fell at his feet crying out: "Have mercy on me, servant of the most high God. And just as you have contended for all my iniquities and were heard, so also petition for this one, and it will surely be blotted out." The Archbishop wept on account of his compassion, she is sent to St. Ephrem: saying: "Rise, woman, for I too am a sinner, in need of pardon. He who blotted out as many of your sins as He willed is also able to take away this one from you -- He who takes away the sins of the world. If from now on you shall guard yourself from sinning, and walk in the ways of the Lord, He will not only pardon you but you will also be worthy of glory. Go therefore to the desert, and you will find a holy man, renowned among all, named Ephrem: give this sheet to him, and when he petitions, he will appease God for you." The woman ran swiftly from the Saint to the desert, and traversing the long road, she reached the place of the great hermit that had been indicated to her. And knocking at the door, she cried out saying: He is taught from heaven why she has come. "Have mercy on me, O holy one of God." He, knowing beforehand for what reason she had come, said to her: "Go away from me, woman, for I am a sinful man, myself in need of help." But she cast down the sheet, saying: "Archbishop Basil sent me to you, that by praying to God you might blot out my iniquity, which lies written on this sheet; for the rest the Saint himself blotted out by his prayer. But for this one, do not be reluctant to beseech God: for I have been sent to you." But the Saint said: And foretelling the death of Basil, sends her back to him. "No, daughter, no. He who prevailed to appease God for the many can also do so for one, more than I. Go therefore and do not delay, so that you may reach him before his passing."
[7] The woman swiftly returned from the Saint to Caesarea. And as she was entering the city, she met those carrying the body of St. Basil. And seeing this, she began to cry out, rolling herself on the ground, She meets the funeral of the Saint, and she protested to the Saint, saying: "Woe to me, wretch! Woe to me, O holy one of God! Was it for this that you sent me to the desert, so that you might pass away undisturbed by me? And behold, I have returned with nothing accomplished, having traversed the expanse of the road in vain. May God see and judge between me and you, since you who were able to appease God for me sent me to another." And crying out these things, touching the bier, she sees the sin blotted out, she cast the sheet upon the bier, recounting in detail the whole matter to all the people. But one of the clergy, wishing to see what the sin was, took the sheet and opening it found it entirely blank throughout, and cried out in a loud voice, saying to the woman: "The sheet is blank, O woman! Why do you trouble yourself, not knowing the mercy that has been done for you?" The multitude of the people therefore, seeing the wondrous miracle, glorified God, who gave power upon earth to forgive sins, granting grace even to His servants to heal every infirmity and every weakness after death, and also to forgive the sins of those who approach in faith.
NotesLIFE OF ST. EPHREM
from Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book 3, chapter 15.
Ephrem the Syrian, at Edessa in Mesopotamia (St.)
BY SOZOMEN.
[1] During the same period, among others who were seen to have lived in great repute and to have adorned the Catholic Church above all, was Ephrem the Syrian, who was born at Nisibis and drew his lineage from the natives of that city. He, ordering his life by monastic discipline, St. Ephrem divinely acquires learning, although he had learned from no one nor expected that he would turn out as he did, suddenly attained such learning in the Syriac language that he grasped the understanding of the highest precepts of philosophy; and not only in the facility and splendor of his speech, but also in the frequency and wisdom of his maxims, he easily surpassed the most excellent Greek writers. For if anyone should wish to translate the writings of the Greeks into the Syriac or into another language, [he produces outstanding writings, which, even when translated into other languages, are equally pleasing:] and to strip away the seasonings (so to speak) of Greek wit, they would at once be found to have lost their former charm. But in the books of Ephrem, the same by no means occurs. For not only while he was alive, but even at this present time, his writings are translated into the Greek language; and the power and elegance of his speech is not much inferior in that language to the original in which they were first published. Indeed, even when a Greek reads them in Greek, he admires them just as much as if he were a Syrian reading them in Syriac.
[2] Praised by St. Basil. Moreover, Basil, who was afterwards Bishop of Caesarea, the chief city of Cappadocia, especially admired this man for his learning and praised him highly. Wherefore, with the fullest right, Ephrem seems to me to have received, by the common consent of those who excelled in eloquence among the Greeks, and by other Greeks: this testimony, pronounced by the mouth of Basil, that he was the most outstanding of all. He is said, moreover, to have written three million verses, if you wish to count them all together, and to have had many disciples who zealously emulated his teaching; of whom the most illustrious were Abbas, he trains distinguished disciples: Zenobius, Abraham, Meras, and Symeon; of whom both the Syrians and all who diligently study Syriac learning boast greatly. Likewise they also praise Paulonas and Aranad for their eloquence; yet they record that those men departed from pious teaching through error.
[3] Nor indeed am I unaware that formerly there were also among the Osrhoenians most eloquent men, Bardesanes, the founder of a certain sect called by his name, and Harmonius his son, who is said to have been educated in the disciplines of the Greeks and to have been the first to subject the native language to metrical rules and musical modes and to have delivered it to choirs of singers; after which manner the Syrians sing even at this time -- not that they use the poems written by Harmonius, to the musical modes of the heretic Harmonius, but the same genre of harmony and meters. For since Harmonius was by no means free from his father's heresy, nor from the opinions which the pagan philosophers held concerning the soul, the origin and destruction of the body, and regeneration, and since he had composed what he had written for the lyre and had mixed those same opinions into his writings, commonly used among the Syrians, Ephrem, seeing that the Syrians were wonderfully charmed both by the elegance of his words and by the rhythmic modes of his music, and thus habituated to hold opinions similar to those of Harmonius -- although he himself was unacquainted with Greek literature -- nevertheless applied himself attentively to comprehending the meters of the verses of Harmonius he adapts pious hymns to them: and composed other poems, consonant with ecclesiastical teaching, to the modes of his songs. Such are the hymns he crafted in divine praise and panegyrics of upright men. From that time the Syrians, observing the modes composed by Ephrem according to the harmony of Harmonius, sing them. How greatly therefore he excelled in genius can easily be conjectured from this.
[4] As for his manner of life, he ennobled himself by good works and an exquisite discipline of living, and was vehemently attached to quiet. He avoids the sight of women: He was, moreover, grave and guarded himself from the slanders of men to such a degree that he even diligently avoided the sight of any woman. For it is reported that a certain woman of dissolute life and utterly shameless habits -- whether she was testing the man herself, or was hired by others to make the attempt -- at a certain time came out on purpose to meet him face to face in a narrow lane and gazed at him with fixed eyes. But he sharply rebuked the woman he is taught by a harlot's apophthegm to look at the earth: and advised her to look at the earth. The woman answered: "How can I do this, since I was not produced from the earth, but from you? For it is more fitting that you look at the earth, from which you have your origin, and that I look at you, from whom I was created." And so Ephrem, greatly admiring the woman, accurately described what had happened between them in a certain book -- a book which those who are learned among the Syrians rank among those books which were carefully crafted by him.
[5] It is also recorded in memory that he, although he could not previously control his temper, nevertheless from the time he began to cultivate the monastic life, a tamer of anger, was never seen by anyone inflamed with anger. And so, when he had fasted for many days, as was his custom, the servant who was bringing him food broke the pot. When Ephrem saw him stricken with shame and fear, he said: "Come, be of good cheer; he sits down to dine beside the fragments of the pot: let us go to the food, since it has not come to us." And so, sitting down beside the fragments of the pot, he dined.
[6] Moreover, how vigorously he suppressed vainglory can be sufficiently understood from what will now be told. At a certain time, some persons who had voted for him to assume the episcopate were trying to seize the man, in order to lead him to the place where a bishop was to be created. To avoid the episcopate, he feigns madness. As soon as he realized this, he dashed into the forum, walking about in a disorderly manner, dragging his garment behind him, and eating food openly, showing himself to be mad. When those who had seized him thought he had gone out of his mind, and the desire by which they were driven to appoint him bishop was extinguished, he, finding an opportune time, secretly fled and hid himself until another was created bishop in his place.
[7] But I shall be content to have said these things about Ephrem. Although the natives of that place both know and recount much more about him, I shall nevertheless commit to writing in this place only one further thing that was done by him not long before his death, since it seems to me particularly memorable. When a famine had afflicted the city of the Edessenes for a long time before, Ephrem came out of the cell in time of famine he warns the Edessenes to help the needy, in which he was living the monastic life, and severely reproached those who had ample means -- namely, because when it was most inappropriate, they diligently preserved their riches while neglecting their fellow tribesmen who were wasted by a lack of necessities, and this to the damage of their own selves and the torment of their soul, which he wisely showed was to be preferred not only to riches of every kind but even to the body itself and all other things; and he plainly showed that they held it as nothing. Those men therefore, reverencing the man and his words, spoke in this manner: "We indeed care nothing for our wealth, but we are very uncertain to whom we should entrust it for distribution, especially since almost all burn with a desire for gain, and would turn this matter into a business for profit." Then Ephrem asked them: "How, pray, do I myself seem to you?" When they confessed that he was a faithful, very well-proven, and good man, and such as his reputation showed him to be, he said: and he himself takes care of the sick and starving: "For your sake, I take this matter upon myself of my own accord." And having received money from them, he set up about three hundred beds in the public porticoes, and took charge not only of those whom the famine had cast into sickness, but also kindly treated strangers and those who, compelled by a want of the necessities of life, had come there from the fields. When the famine was over, he returned to the dwelling in which he had previously spent his days. A few days later, he dies: he died. Although in the clerical Order he had been raised only to the Diaconate, he was nevertheless celebrated in everyone's speech for his virtue no less than those who had been held in great admiration on account of the dignity of the priesthood, a good manner of life, and excellent teaching. Wherefore let these things stand as certain tokens of the virtue which shone in Ephrem. For to speak of him worthily, and to discourse accurately about how he and each of the others who at that time devoted themselves to the monastic life ordered their life and habits, and among whom they spent their days, would indeed require a writer such as he himself was.
Notesa Thus Christopherson translates ton tede epichorion to genos eichen, "he drew his lineage from the natives of that place." Others read: ton tede chorion, "from the region or territory of that place." Thus above he writes that his ancestors were farmers.
b Epi tosouton paideias kata ten Syron phonen epedoken. Christopherson had translated this as "he made such progress in the mastery of the Syriac language." The author means that he suddenly became learned, but in the Syriac language, which was his vernacular. So also Nicephorus: kata ten Syron phonen tosouton epedoken, kai tauta mete prodidachtheis, "he made such progress in the language of the Syrians, and this without having been previously taught."
c Nicephorus adds: kai hedei tou logou, "and by the sweetness of his speech."
d Somewhat more clearly Nicephorus: So that by the sure testimony of so great a man it is evident that by the common judgment of the Greeks who at that time held a distinguished name in eloquence, Ephrem was judged the most outstanding of all.
e Nicephorus: Maran.
f Bardesanes, born at Edessa in the times of Marcus Verus, wrote many things, as did Harmonius, who learned the Greek language at Athens. So Theodoret, On Heretical Fables, book 1, chapter 22, who adds: "The error of both was vigorously refuted by Ephrem the Syrian, a most celebrated man." On the Bardesanites, see Praedestinatus of Sirmond, heresy 35.
g Nicephorus adds: harpason te ton onion, "snatching things that were for sale."
h Sozomen and Nicephorus: en tois demosiois embolois. Christopherson and Johannes Langus translate: "in the public porticoes." Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 101: kai diaphraxas tous embolous. Hervetus translates: "and having constructed an enclosure with fixed stakes." Better: "and having enclosed the porticoes with a barrier." Correctly Vincent of Beauvais, book 17, chapter 87: "He partitioned off the porticoes of the city with fixed walls."
i Palladius: "He cared for those who were more feeble, he supplied provisions to those who were wasting away from hunger; he buried those who were dying, and he attended to those who had hope of life; and, to say it once, he daily provided hospitality and service on account of the famine from what was supplied to him. For a full year he cares for the sick. When therefore the year was completed and fertility had returned and all things were going well, having nothing more to do, he entered his cell; and after a month he died, since God had provided him this occasion for obtaining a crown in his last days." Vincent likewise: "When that year was completed, after which there were great abundances of crops, he returned to his cell, in which after the space of one month he died." Peter de Natali has the same, adding that he died on the Kalends of February, which we have explained above why we regard as less probable.