Saint Ephraim the Syrian

Saint Ephraim the Syrian is a doctor of the church and came to be a great influence on future generations. As a boy, everyone could have expected him to amount to anything but a holy man. Ephraim was the author of a large sum of religious texts and hymns. He also “used Syriac-language verse as a means to explain and popularize theological truths” (St. Ephrem, CNA). St. Ephraim was a kind-hearted man who empathized with the poor and sick. He was an overall good person and an example of how we should try to live out our lives.

Ephraim had not always been destined to become a saint. He was born in the early fourth century and he grew up in a Christian family, and although his parents taught him the ways of Jesus, “he was impetuous and even rather wild” (ST. EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN, Orthodox Christianity) in his youth. On one occurrence, Ephraim killed his neighbor’s cow by forcing it into an area with wild animals, where it was eaten.

He continued like this until an incident occurred that changed him largely immensely. It was during the aftermath of this incident that Ephraim saw God.

The day Ephraim saw God, he had been accused of stealing sheep. While this was a wrong accusation, the judge still found him guilty and he was thrown into prison. It was there then, while he was going over the events that had just occurred, that he saw God. Ephraim saw in a dream “that he was not being punished for stealing sheep, but for all the sins he truly had committed” (Ephraim of Syria, CCEL).

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Ephraim then went out to be a servant of the Lord. He was baptized at age 18 and “served as a teacher, and possibly deacon, under five bishops of Nisibis, Jacob, Babu, Vologeses, and Abraham” (St. Ephrem, Catholic Online).

Saint Ephraim as a doctor of the church spent his life writing hymns and spreading God’s Word. Two of Ephraim’s most famous hymns are “Hymn to the Light” and “Glory to You, Son of our Creator!”. The former is about the raising of the dead into heaven. The latter speaks of the prophecy of the Lord being fulfilled. In Ephraim’s time, poetry was used to “promote religious error” (St. Ephrem, CNA). Ephraim used this technique, except he used it to define religious truths. Ephraim had many great accomplishments throughout his lifetime.

Obviously, as a saint, he must have had excellent personality traits. First of all, he was a kind-hearted man. When a famine swept Syria, he went out to serve the sick and hungry with all that he had. Ephraim was also an obedient man. When God called him to live in solitude, he went immediately to living live his life in a cave writing and praying, only coming out towards the end of his life. Finally, Saint Ephraim was a nongreedy person. When death was soon coming to sweep him away, he said to his friends, “Sing no funeral hymns at Ephrem’s burial … Wrap not my carcass in any costly shroud: erect no monument to my memory. Allow me only the portion and place of a pilgrim; for I am a pilgrim and a stranger as all my fathers were on earth.”.

Saint Ephraim died in 373 of disease that he had most likely obtained when serving the sick. While he was rather an unruly child, a vision of God changed him for the better. He is an example of how God can affect us if we allow him to. Ephraim’s work strongly affected the Middle East, and as a result, Christianity in the area increased as a whole. We can take away from his life that we should make helping others a priority in our own life. Saint Ephraim the Syrian led an exemplary life, and we can look to him to see how we can follow in the footsteps of our Lord.

Works Cited

1. Catholic Online. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. Orthodox Church in America, January 28, 2018, https://oca.org/saints/lives/2018/01/28/100328-venerable-ephraim-the-syrian.
2. Catholic Online. St. Ephrem. Catholic Online, Catholic Online, https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3.
3. Ephraim of Syria. Christian Catholics Ethereal Library, Calvin College Computer Science, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ephraim.
4. St. Ephraim the Syrian. Orthodox Christianity, February 2, 2012, http://orthochristian.com/51520.html.
5. St. Ephrem. Catholic News Agency, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-ephrem-494.