Saint Ephraim the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the
beginning of the fourth century in the city of Nisibis (Mesopotamia)
into the family of impoverished toilers of the soil. His parents raised
their son in piety, but from his childhood he was known for his quick
temper and impetuous character. He often had fights, acted
thoughtlessly, and even doubted God’s Providence. He finally recovered
his senses by the grace of God, and embarked on the path of repentance
and salvation.
Once, he was unjustly accused of stealing a sheep
and was thrown into prison. He heard a voice in a dream calling him to
repent and correct his life. After this, he was acquitted of the charges
and set free.
The young man ran off to the mountains to join the
hermits. This form of Christian asceticism had been introduced by a
disciple of St Anthony the Great, the Egyptian desert dweller Eugenius.
St
James of Nisibis (January 13) was a noted ascetic, a preacher of
Christianity and denouncer of the Arians. St Ephraim became one of his
disciples. Under the direction of the holy hierarch, St Ephraim attained
Christian meekness, humility, submission to God’s will, and the
strength to undergo various temptations without complaint.
St
James transformed the wayward youth into a humble and conrite monk.
Realizing the great worth of his disciple, he made use of his talents.
He trusted him to preach sermons, to instruct children in school, and he
took Ephraim with him to the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (in the
year 325). St Ephraim was in obedience to St James for fourteen years,
until the bishop’s death in 338.
After the capture of Nisibis by
the Persians in 363, St Ephraim went to a monastery near the city of
Edessa. Here he saw many great ascetics, passing their lives in prayer
and psalmody. Their caves were solitary shelters, and they fed
themselves with a certain plant.
He became especially close to the
ascetic Julian (October 18), who was of one mind with him. St Ephraim
combined asceticism with a ceaseless study of the Word of God, taking
from it both solace and wisdom for his soul. The Lord gave him a gift of
teaching, and people began to come to him, wanting to hear his counsel,
which produced compunction in the soul, since he began with
self-accusation. Both verbally and in writing, St Ephraim instructed
everyone in repentance, faith and piety, and he denounced the Arian
heresy, which at that time was causing great turmoil. Pagans who heard
the preaching of the saint were converted to Christianity.
He also
wrote the first Syriac commentary on the Pentateuch (i.e. “Five Books”)
of Moses. He wrote many prayers and hymns, thereby enriching the
Church’s liturgical services. Famous prayers of St Ephraim are to the
Most Holy Trinity, to the Son of God, and to the Most Holy Theotokos. He
composed hymns for the Twelve Great Feasts of the Lord (the Nativity of
Christ, the Baptism, the Resurrection), and funeral hymns. St Ephraim’s
Prayer of Repentance, “O Lord and Master of my life...”, is recited
during Great Lent, and it summons Christians to spiritual renewal.
From
ancient times the Church has valued the works of St Ephraim. His works
were read publicly in certain churches after the Holy Scripture, as St
Jerome tells us. At present, the Church Typikon prescribes certain of
his instructions to be read on the days of Lent. Among the prophets, St
David is the preeminent psalmodist; among the Fathers of the Church, St
Ephraim the Syrian is the preeminent man of prayer. His spiritual
experience made him a guide for monastics and a help to the pastors of
Edessa. St Ephraim wrote in Syriac, but his works were very early
translated into Greek and Armenian. Translations into Latin and Slavonic
were made from the Greek text.
In many of St Ephraim’s works we
catch glimpses of the life of the Syrian ascetics, which was centered on
prayer and working in various obediences for the common good of the
brethren. The outlook of all the Syrian ascetics was the same. The monks
believed that the goal of their efforts was communion with God and the
acquisition of divine grace. For them, the present life was a time of
tears, fasting and toil.
“If the Son of God is within you, then
His Kingdom is also within you. Thus, the Kingdom of God is within you, a
sinner. Enter into yourself, search diligently and without toil you
shall find it. Outside of you is death, and the door to it is sin. Enter
into yourself, dwell within your heart, for God is there.”
Constant
spiritual sobriety, the developing of good within man’s soul gives him
the possibility to take upon himself a task like blessedness, and a
self-constraint like sanctity. The requital is presupposed in the
earthly life of man, it is an undertaking of spiritual perfection by
degrees. Whoever grows himself wings upon the earth, says St Ephraim, is
one who soars up into the heights; whoever purifies his mind here
below, there glimpses the Glory of God. In whatever measure each one
loves God, he is, by God’s love,satiated to fullness according to that
measure. Man, cleansing himself and attaining the grace of the Holy
Spirit while still here on earth, has a foretaste of the Kingdom of
Heaven. To attain to life eternal, in the teachings of St Ephraim, does
not mean to pass over from one realm of being into another, but rather
to discover “the heavenly,” spiritual condition of being. Eternal life
is not bestown on man through God’s one-sided efforts, but rather, it
constantly grows like a seed within him by his efforts, toils and
struggles.
The pledge within us of “theosis” (or “deification”) is
the Baptism of Christ, and the main force that drives the Christian
life is repentance. St Ephraim was a great teacher of repentance. The
forgiveness of sins in the Mystery of Repentance, according to his
teaching, is not an external exoneration, not a forgetting of the sins,
but rather their complete undoing, their annihilation. The tears of
repentance wash away and burn away the sin. Moreover, they (i.e. the
tears) enliven, they transfigure sinful nature, they give the strength
“to walk in the way of the the Lord’s commandments,” encouraging hope in
God. In the fiery font of repentance, the saint wrote, “you sail
yourself across, O sinner, you resurrect yourself from the dead.”
St
Ephraim, accounting himself as the least and worst of all, went to
Egypt at the end of his life to see the efforts of the great ascetics.
He was accepted there as a welcome guest and received great solace from
conversing with them. On his return journey he visited at Caesarea in
Cappadocia with St Basil the Great (January 1), who wanted to ordain him
a priest, but he considered himself unworthy of the priesthood. At the
insistence of St Basil, he consented only to be ordained as a deacon, in
which rank he remained until his death. Later on, St Basil invited St
Ephraim to accept a bishop’s throne, but the saint feigned madness in
order to avoid this honor, humbly regarding himself as unworthy of it.
After
his return to his own Edessa wilderness, St Ephraim hoped to spend the
rest of his life in solitude, but divine Providence again summoned him
to serve his neighbor. The inhabitants of Edessa were suffering from a
devastating famine. By the influence of his word, the saint persuaded
the wealthy to render aid to those in need. From the offerings of
believers he built a poor-house for the poor and sick. St Ephraim then
withdrew to a cave near Edessa, where he remained to the end of his
days.
Source- Oca.Org
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