Troparion in
Tone 8
By a flood of tears you made the desert
fertile,
And your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe.
O our holy father Ephraim, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!
Kontakion in
Tone 2
O holy father Ephraim,
As you meditated constantly on the final judgment,
You shed abundant tears of sorrow,
Making your struggles examples that we could follow and imitate,
And awakening the slothful to repentance:
You are indeed a father of high renown.
Saint
Ephraim the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the beginning
of the fourth century in the city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, where the
Roman Empire bordered on Persia.
At one time Mesopotamia belonged to Syria and for
this reason St. Ephraim is known as "the Syrian."
His parents were impoverished toilers of the soil,
who raised their son in
piety. When he was still a
baby, his parents had a prophetic dream: from the boy's tongue sprang a
lush vine which produced abundant clusters of grapes. The more the birds
ate the fruit, the more it multiplied. Later it was revealed that these
clusters were his sermons, the leaves of the vine--his hymns.
However, from his childhood
Ephraim was known for his quick temper and
impetuous character. He often had fights, acted thoughtlessly, and even
doubted God's Providence.
Judging from his youth one could never have guessed his future
greatness. In spite of his parents' having educated him in Christian
precepts, he was impetuous and even rather wild, like an unruly colt
which resists the bridle: "I would quarrel over trifles, acted
foolishly, gave in to bad impulses and lustful thoughts. My youth
nearly convinced me that life is ruled by chance. But God's Providence
brought my impassioned youth to the light of wisdom."
He finally recovered his senses by the grace of
God, and embarked on the path of repentance and salvation.
He relates the story of his conversion: One day my parents sent me
outer town and I found a pregnant cow feeding along the road. I took up
stones and began pelting the cow, driving it into the woods till evening
when it fell down dead? During the night wild beasts ate it. On my way
back, I met the poor owner of the cow. 'My son,' he asked, 'did you
drive away my cow?' I not only denied it, but heaped abuse and insult
upon the poor man."
A few
days later he was idling with some shepherds. When it grew too late to
return home, he spent the night with them. That night some sheep were stolen
and he was unjustly
accused of stealing a sheep. Ephraim
was taken before the magistrate and cast into prison. In a dream an angel
appeared to Ephraim and asked him why he was there. The boy began at once to
declare that he was, innocent. "Yes," said the angel, "you are innocent
of the crime imputed to you, but have you forgotten the poor man's cow?"
When
Ephraim saw the tortures to which criminals were subjected, he became
terrified. He turned to God and vowed that he would become a monk if God
would spare him such a cruel ordeal. The magistrate, however, just laughed
at the youth's tears and ordered that he be stretched on the rack.
But just then a servant came to
announce that dinner was ready. "Very well," said the magistrate, "I
will examine the boy another day." And he ordered him back to
prison. Providentially, the next time the magistrate saw Ephraim, he
thought he had been punished enough and dismissed him. Although he was
spared the rack, Ephraim had learned his lesson and, like the Prophet
David, he entreated the Lord to overlook his youthful folly.
True to his vow, upon his release
he went straightway to the hermits living in the mountains where he
became a disciple of St. James, who later became a great
bishop of Nisibis. Born again in repentance, Ephraim began to train as
an athlete of virtues, exorcizing himself in the study of the Holy
Scriptures and in prayer and fasting. The passionate and wayward youth
was transformed into a humble and contrite monk, weeping day and night
for his sins and entirely surrendered to God. Ephraim's earnest resolve
pleased the Lord Who rewarded him with the gifts of wisdom; grace flowed
from his mouth like a sweet stream, in fulfillment of his parents'
dream.
Remember not O Lord the sins
of my youth. (Psalms 25:7)
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 Eugenios.
St. James of
Nisibis 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.
In spite of the gifts which God
so lavishly bestowed upon him, St. Ephraim remained deeply humble. He
even feigned madness so as to avoid being consecrated bishop and the
glory that attends that position. Doubtless, his humility was guarded by
the remembrance of the sins of his youth and by his contrite spirit
which followed upon this remembrance. But while tears of repentance
constantly flowed from his eyes, Ephraim's face was bright and shone
with joy. As St. Gregory writes: "Where Ephraim speaks of contrition,
he lifts our thought to the Divine goodness and pours cut thanksgiving
and praise to the Most High."
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 until
January 28, 373, where after a brief illness, St. Ephraim reposed from
his labours and was received into the heavenly habitations. The citizens
of Edessa called him a "lyre of the Holy Spirit."
Now, centuries later, his works
still sing to the soul, inspiring it with the sweet fruit of repentance.
Saint Ephraim is
a good example for all those people who think that they were too bad as
children to ever turn their lives around. It is also a good thing for
us to see that we can still turn our lives around, even when we do bad
things.
