Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Today, my beloved, we continue a series that we started just a little while ago, entitled Who Are the Heroes of Orthodoxy? In this video, we study together the life of a man who enlightened a countless number of believers and positively affected many generations of Christians even until this very day.
What is remarkable is that this person that we are about to study was simply a devout Christian who loved His God so much that he dedicated his life to worshiping the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and to sharing this love with all those who were around him through the talents that God had given him. Today, we speak of the great St. Ephraim of Syria.
St. Ephraim was born in the very early 4 th century, approximately in the year 306 A.D. in the city of Nisibis, which is modern Turkish town of Nusaybin on the border of Syria. As for his parents, we're not entirely sure if they were Christian faithful or not. Now, some traditions and even some of his own writings lead us to believe that St. Ephraim's parents were Christian, but more recent writers, those who wrote the lives of the saints, claim that his parents were probably pagan.
In eastern tradition, however, it is said that his parents had a dream where they saw their son and from his mouth sprang a large and fruitful vine which produced abundant clusters of grapes. And from these grapes, all sorts of animals ate and were filled. And later on, we discovered that this dream was to foretell of the innumerable amounts of people who would feed off of the divinely inspired teaching of this great saint.
However, the same eastern traditions also tell us that this saint lived a very unruly life as a youth. St. Ephraim himself is recorded saying that:
''My youth nearly convinced me that life is ruled by chance. But God's Providence brought my impassioned youth to the light of wisdom.'' (St. Ephraim the Syrian)
In his life story, we are told that, at some point, he was falsely accused of stealing some sheep and he was imprisoned for it. He later realized that, through divine inspiration, that this was God's way of setting him back on the right track. He eventually was released from prison and the Lord saved him from any additional punishment that might have come from the crime of which he was falsely accused.
He then devoted his life to ascetical living in the mountains with a group of hermits. He became the student of St. James, the first bishop of Nisibis. And by the grace of God, St. James taught St. Ephraim, he discipled him and he eventually baptized him and entrusted to him many responsibilities of teaching Christian believers. St. James is actually recorded to have been in the attendance of the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 325 and we believe that he took St. Ephraim, his disciple, with him.
St. Ephraim lived a pious and ascetic life and he dedicated much of his time to prayer, to fasting and to the study of Holy Scriptures. And the Lord rewarded him with an unparalleled talent of creative expression. He wrote hundreds of sermons, prayers and hymns, many of which are written in a very poetic fashion. He adopted a method of poetry and song when writing as a means to have common people memorize the words and to sing along in the process, so that they can be taught the Orthodox faith of the one true God.
All sorts of people were attracted to his writings and in this way, the dream that his parents once had came true: from the mouth of St. Ephraim came forth a vine of wisdom whose fruit fed the souls of thousands and thousands of people.
St. Ephraim lived in a time where chaos and turmoil were always around the corner. His hometown of Nisibis was targeted several times by the Persian rulers, and ultimately, the Christians of that area were forced into exile. Now, St. Ephraim, along with many of the believers, they settled in a city called Edessa.
Now, if the political problems that caused him to leave his hometown were not enough, St. Ephraim also found himself in a time where the Church and her faith was under attack from many heretical ideologies. Edessa was a city that was full of rival philosophies and religions. And all of these false beliefs were all claiming to be the one and only truthful way of life.
And in all of this confusion, what St. Ephraim did is that he wrote a great number of hymns defending the Orthodox faith. It is actually believed that he would even go to a group of women who would form choirs and sing his hymns in the public squares as a means to spread the true faith.
Now, tradition also tells us that St. Ephraim, before his death, would encounter other great saints of the Church among whom are St. Basil the Great, as well as St. Bishoy, the great Egyptian monk. These acquaintances that he had with such godly men reveal to us the stature of this great saint from Syria.
St. Basil supposedly attempted to ordain St. Ephraim, first to become a priest, and another time to become a bishop, but in all of these cases, St. Ephraim refused humbly, claiming to be unworthy of these orders. And the only rank that St. Ephraim is known to have had among his entire life was that of deacon. And after many years of serving the Lord and His flock, he
reposed in peace and left behind a wealth of writings and teachings that would forever influence generations of Christians.
Why don't we take a moment and maybe take a look at how lovely and enriching some of his writings were? In this first passage that I will read to you, he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
''Glory be to You Who clothed Yourself in the body of mortal Adam, and made it a fountain of life [from] all mortals. (...) Come, let us make our love the great censer of the community, and offer on it as incense our hymns and our prayers to Him Who made His cross a censer for the Godhead, and offered from it on behalf of us all. He that was above stooped down to those who were beneath, to distribute His treasures to them.'' (Ephraim the Syrian, Homily on Our Lord, 9)
Again, in this next passage, he writes on repentance and the grace of God. He says the following:
''Of You, O Lord, of Your grace it is that in our nature we should become good. Of You is righteousness, that we from men should become righteous. Of You is the mercy and favour, that we from the dust should become Your image. Give power to our will, that we be not sunk in sin! Pour into our heart memory, that at every hour we may know Your honour! Plant truth in our minds, that we perish not among doubts!
''Occupy our understanding with Your law, that it wanders not in vain thoughts! Order the motions of our members, that they bring no hurt upon us! [And then he speaks to us as believers and he says:] Draw near to God, that Satan may flee from you. Cast out passions from your heart, and lo! You have put to flight the enemy. Hate sins and wickedness, and Satan at once will have fled.'' (Ephraim the Syrian, Homily on Admonition and Repentance, 7)
My beloved, he was never a monk, a priest or a bishop, and yet this man is deserving to be named among the holy Church Fathers. And for all that he has contributed to the faith, we consider him a hero of Orthodoxy. May we all benefit from the beauty of his teachings, the sweetness of his poetry, the gift of his love to the Lord our God.
Remember, my beloved: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And to God be the glory now and forever unto the ages of all ages. Amen.