EPHREM, Saint. - Father of the Church, the most celebrated Syriac writer and one of the most distinguished doctors both for the abundance of his writings, predominantly poetic, and for the excellence of his doctrine. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Benedict XV with the encyclical Principi Apostolorum of 5 October 1920 (AAS, 12 [1920], pp. 457-471).
The fame of E. was so great that his verses were translated into Greek shortly after his death and read after Sacred Scripture (St. Jerome, De viris illustribus, II, 5). Sozomen (Hist. eccl., III, 16) holds that E. surpassed the Greek Fathers themselves in elegance of style and depth of thought. All the Syrians, Catholic Monophysites and Nestorians, venerate E., who is called "harp of the Holy Spirit." In the history of Byzantine literature E. had an interesting repercussion: when his verses, composed according to the Syriac meter of the simple number of syllables, were translated into Greek, the meter based on the number of syllables was for the first time imitated in Greek as well, a meter that would later become classical in Byzantine hymnography.
I. LIFE
The first biographical source, besides the scattered notices in E.'s works, is his Testament, of which two recensions survive, one Syriac (ed. R. Duval, in Journ. Asiat., 18 [1901], pp. 234-419) and one Greek (ed. J. S. Assemani, S. P. Ephraemi opera, II, Rome 1743, pp. 230-47), not without some legendary element. There is also a very ancient "Syriac biography" attributed to E.'s disciple Simeon of Samosata, of which three recensions remain (ed. J. S. Assemani, Bibl. Orient., I, Rome 1719, pp. 26-55; Th. Lamy, S. Ephr. Syrii hymni et sermones, II, Malines 1882, pp. 3-89; IV, p. 1 ff.), likewise historical in substance and not devoid of some less certain notices. From this source depends, if not Sozomen (Hist. eccl., III, 14, 16), at least the "encomium" falsely attributed to St. Gregory of Nyssa, from which in turn the anonymous Greek bios (ed. J. S. Assemani, S. P. Ephraemi opera, I, Rome 1732) and Metaphrastes (ibid.) drew.
E. was born at Nisibis during the reign of Constantine, probably around 306. According to some sources his parents were Christians; others, however, make his father a priest of idols. E. was not baptized as a child, but when he was 18 or 28 years old. It is known that he was a deacon; his priesthood, on the other hand, is not certain. It is probable that E. was ordained by his friend St. James, bishop of Nisibis. The report that E. accompanied this bishop to the Council of Nicaea is false. He gave extraordinary proofs of fortitude in the three sieges to which Nisibis was subjected by the Persians. When Jovian was forced to cede the city to the Persians in 363, E. moved with many other Christians to Edessa, where he founded the famous school (v. EDESSA) called that of the Persians. E.'s journey to Egypt is fictitious (H. J. Polonsky, Ephraemi's Reise nach Aegypten, in Orientalia, 2 [1933], pp. 269-75). That to Caesarea in Cappadocia to visit St. Basil is also very doubtful. E. cultivated religious perfection and very probably led, at least in certain periods, a monastic life. He died at Edessa in 372, probably on 9 June. His feast falls on 18 June.
II. WRITINGS
The works of St. E. are still a mare magnum. Sozomen attributes to him "an infinity of verses"
and the Syrians, according to Fazio, spoke of more than a thousand works. E. wrote only in Syriac. It is not easy to establish which are the authentic works of E., some of which are preserved in codices of the 5th and 6th centuries and are cited by very ancient authors. The Armenian versions, made around the 6th century, are considered reliable, whereas the works preserved for us only in Greek versions are not accepted as authentic, given the insufficient antiquity of the manuscripts.
There exist several editions of E.: 1. Complete: J. S. Assemani, S. Patris N. Ephraemi Syri opera omnia quae graece, latine et syriace nunc primum e Vaticana Bibliotheca prodierunt, 6 vols., Rome 1738-43 (= AS), of which three contain Syriac writings and the others Greek and Latin. It is not a very critical edition: nor is everything it contains authentic, nor does it contain everything that is authentic. The Latin version from the Syriac is made with too much freedom: Th. Lamy, S. Ephraemi Syri hymni et sermones, 4 vols., Malines 1882-1902 (= LA). Although much more perfect than the preceding one, which it intends to complete but not to replace, this edition also offers some doubtful passages.
2. Special: J. J. Overbeck, S. Ephraem Syri, Rabulae, Balai aliorumque opp. selecta, Oxford 1865 (= OV); C. W. Mitchell, S. Ephr. 1 Prae Refutations of Mani, Marcion and Bardakan, 2 vols., London 1921 (= MI); G. Bickell, Carmina Nisibena, Leipzig 1886 (= BI); I. E. Rahmani, Studia Syriaca, 4 vols., Sharfeh 1904-1909 (hymn on the Nativity of Christ), Beirut 1927; (hymns on virginity), ibid. 1906. For the Armenian versions published by the Mechitarists of Venice, cf. J. B. Auches-G. Moessinger, Evangelii concordantis expositio facta a 1. Ephraemo... in latinum translata, Venice 1876 (= AU); PP. Mechitarists, S. Ephr. commentarii in opp. divi Pauli... ex armeno in latinum translati, ibid. 1893 (= MK). The commentary on the Acts of the Apostles is translated from Armenian into English and Latin by F. C. Conybeare, The Comm. of Ephr. on Acts, in the book by F. Jackson-K. Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, London 1926, I, III, pp. 373, 453. For some Greek versions see S. J. Mercati, S. Ephr. Syri opp., I, Rome 1915 (it is the only one published).
E. wrote exegetical works following the Antiochene method. Thus the commentaries on Gen., on Ex. (= AS IV) and on the Diatessaron (v.), the latter most important for establishing its text through the Armenian version (AU). Of a dogmatic-polemical character, on the other hand, are the works in prose and verse against the Gnostics (MI), 56 hymns against the heresies (AS V), 4 hymns against Julian the Apostate (OV), 3 poems on faith (AS VI) and above all the 80 hymns "on faith against the scrutinizers" (AS VI), perhaps E.'s masterpiece as a theologian. There are then many other writings, generally in verse, which concern liturgical, ascetic, biographical and various themes. Thus, to cite only the principal ones, the Nisibene hymns (BI), those on Christmas (LA II), on fasting (LA II), on the unleavened bread (LA I), on the crucifixion (LA I), on Easter (LA II), 15 hymns on St. Abraham Qidunaja (LA III) and 24 on St. Julian Saba (LA III), 51 hymns on virginity and on the mysteries of Christ (LA II, IV), 52 hymns on the Church (AS V, VI, LA II, IV), songs on Nicomedia (I. Rahmani, Studia Syriaca, II, p. 21) and on the siege of Nisibis (ibid., p. 114). The liturgical books still attribute to E., and in these cases criticism cannot decide with certainty, most beautiful hymns on Baptism (LA I) and on the Madonna (LA II), as well as 15 hymns to the martyrs (LA III), 5 hymns to the 40 martyrs of Sebaste (AS VI) and funeral hymns, or necretum (AS VI).
III. DOCTRINE
In his writings E. teaches a doctrine that is consistently orthodox even on theological questions, such as that of the union of the natures in Christ, not yet illuminated by the controversies. E.'s Mariology, which earned him the title of doctor Marinum, is most worthy of note. Although he does not use a title equivalent to Theotokos, he does have expressions in which the divine motherhood of Mary is alluded to. Moreover, besides defending her virginity before and during childbirth, he upholds with a clarity unique up to that time her virginity after childbirth. To this end he rejects one by one the principal objections against this truth drawn from the New Testament. E. was the first Father to affirm explicitly Mary's complete immunity from every sin, with expressions that exclude even original sin:
«You (O Christ!) and your Mother are the only ones beautiful on every side, since there is no uncleanness in You, O Lord, and no stain in your Mother» (BI, p. 123). Recent attempts to weaken this text on the ground that E. did not have very exact ideas about original sin are to be considered of various kinds, given that, since this is a negative proposition, it is enough that the author exclude every stain even granting that he did not have a perfect knowledge of the nature of these stains. Mary, moreover, is «cause of good» (LA II, 526), «cause of life» (ibid.); through her the writing of our debts toward the serpent has been blotted out (loc. cit., p. 550).
E. treated Christology extensively and profoundly. The Word is one thing with the Father (though here E. does not use a term parallel to Quodacus), he is his true Son, since the sentences of Scripture must be understood with simplicity and not by following the cavils of the «scrutinizers». The Word assumed a true humanity while remaining a divine person. In Christ there are divinity and humanity intimately united with one another. E. sometimes speaks of «mixture», which, however, according to the context, does not mean a true fusion and alteration. E. also touches, albeit with a certain obscurity, on the question of the two wills in Christ.
Here are other points of E.'s theology. There is one God, invisible, omnipresent, triune in Persons. The Holy Spirit is a divine person and proceeds from the Father. The texts cited to prove that E. declares the procession of the Spirit from the Son are not authentic or are not clear. In man E. distinguishes, along with his contemporary Syrians, body, soul and spirit. Adam's sin has passed to all men; its leaven has corrupted the whole mass. There are texts of E. that seem to suppose the slumbering of the soul (not of the spirit) near the dead body, that is, hypnopsychia. Other passages, however, speak of the destiny already attained by souls. Near paradise E. also acknowledges a region in which certain souls «undergo the punishments assessed for their faults». The Church is one, is the Body of Christ, infallible, holy, perpetual. The primacy of St. Peter is clearly expressed, while nothing is said of Rome. Also noteworthy are the testimonies on Baptism, on the Unction that follows it, on the Eucharist and on Order. Some text speaks of Penance, but it is not known whether it is sacramental. There is also an allusion to the legitimacy of Matrimony. - See plate VIII.
Bibliography15 works
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina