St. Pachomius Library

St. Ephraim of Syria

Also EFREM
IV Century
St. Ephrem was born c 306; some say his family was Christian, while others say it was pagan. He was baptized at 18 (or 28) by Bishop James of Nisibis. Ephrem was ordained a deacon and pretended to be mad to avoid consecration as a bishop. When Jovianus ceded Nisibis to the Persians in 363, Ephrem and many other Christians moved to Edessa. Ephrem died there in 373 while he was ministering to people who had the plague.
St. Ephrem wrote many poems--over 1,000 works in all, with a total of over 3,000,000 lines. Many of his works are difficult to translate because of their complex structures, images, wordplays, and parallels. Scholars question the authenticity of all texts attributed to the "Harp of the Faith," a name frequently given to Ephrem, since many exist in Latin or Greek translation only. Ephrem wrote polemical verse defending the faith against gnostics and Arians, as well as poems against specific people, like Bar-Daisan. Ephrem was devoted to the Theotokos and wrote much in her praise. His Sermons on Faith are metrical homilies, and he wrote prose commentaries on the Old Testament and on the Epistles of St. Paul. He annotated the Greek-Syriac New Testament Diatessaron. His descriptions of heaven and hell are said to have inspired Dante.
Karen Rae Keck

ABOUT:
- Saint Ephrem the Syrian Library. Excellent homepage. Includes a number of primary texts which we have not indexed below, because they reside on personal homepages and are difficult to keep updated. --- Tserkovnost
- "A Jesuit Priest": Saint Ephrem. --- Catholicism.Org
- A St. Ephrem Ikon Gallery. --- Tserkovnost
- Bp. Geoffrey Rowell: Making the Church of England Poetical: Ephraim and the Oxford Movement. From Hugoye, 2:1 (1999). --- Justus
WORKS:
- On Abraham and Isaac. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- On Admonition and Repentance: Johnston translation. --- CCEL
- A Hymn Against Bar-Daisan: Bar-Daisan was a celebrated intellectual whose version of Christianity incorporated Gnostic and possibly Hindu or Buddhist ideas. Here, Ephraim sings that God is everywhere and fills all things; everything else -- in particular, Fire -- is merely created, not pre-existent as Bar-Daisan must have argued. Jones translation, 1904. --- SPL
- Against Bardaisan's Book "Domnus". Mitchell translation (1921) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian
- A Discourse in Stanzas against Bardaisan. Mitchell translation (1921) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian
- On the Beatitudes: Fifty-Five Chapters. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- The Cave of Treasures: Legendary lives of the patriarchs who lived before the Deluge. This may or may not be a genuine work of St. Ephraim. Translated and edited by G. A. Anderson and M. E. Stone. --- University of Virginia
- Epistle to a Disciple: Advice on the monastic life. From Coptic papyrus. Budge translation. --- SPL
- To the Monks of Egypt. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- Hymns for Epiphany: Johnston translation. --- NA
- Hymns on Fasting. Anderson/Griffith/Young translation (incomplete). --- G. A. Anderson
- On the Departed Fathers, Part I. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- On the Departed Fathers, Part II. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- Commentary on Exodus. Translated by E. G. Mathews and J. P. Amar in Selected Prose Works of St. Ephrem of Syria, Fathers of the Church 91, (Washington: Catholic University, 1994).
- Commentary on Genesis. Translated by E. G. Mathews and J. P. Amar in Selected Prose Works of St. Ephrem of Syria, Fathers of the Church 91, (Washington: Catholic University, 1994).
- On Joseph. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim:
  - According to the Greek Text: --- Kidcentric
  - According to the Slavonic Text: --- World Prayers
- Homily on Our Lord:
  - Homily on Our Lord: Johnston translation. --- NA
  - Homily on Our Lord. Translated by E. G. Mathews and J. P. Amar in Selected Prose Works of St. Ephrem of Syria, Fathers of the Church 91, (Washington: Catholic University, 1994).
- On Love. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- Discourses to Hypatius against Mani, Marcion and Bardaisan. Mitchell translation (1912) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian
  
  First Discourse.
  Second Discourse.
  Third Discourse.
  Fourth Discourse.
  Fifth Discourse.
- Against Mani. Mitchell translation (1921) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian
- Against Marcion. Mitchell translation (1921) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian
  
  First Discourse.
  Second Discourse.
  Third Discourse.
- Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. Morris translation. --- NA
- Nisibene Hymns: Sarsfield Stopford translation. --- NA
- Paschal Hymns.
  - Les Hymnes Pascales d'Ephrem de Nisibe. Translated into French with extremely long commentary by G.A.M. Rouwhorst (Leiden: Brill, 1989).
- On the Passion. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- The Pearl: Seven Hymns on the Faith Famous and beautiful allegorical poem. Morris translation. --- SPL
- On Prayer. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- On Psalmody. Copyrighted Archimandrite Ephrem translation. --- Archim. Ephrem
- To Publius. Translated by E. G. Mathews and J. P. Amar in Selected Prose Works of St. Ephrem of Syria, Fathers of the Church 91, (Washington: Catholic University, 1994).\Remarkable and poetic meditation on the Gospel as a mirror for the soul, and the Last Judgement.
- On the Sinful Woman Who Anointed Christ's Feet: Johnston translation. --- NA
- On Virginity. Mitchell translation (1921) of Palimpsest BM Add. 14623. --- Tertullian

0
Return to St Pachomius Library.