Feast day: June 9
St. Ephrem the Syrian
Syrian deacon called the 'Harp of the Holy Spirit,' who wrote hundreds of hymns turning theology into music people actually sang.
Ephrem the Syrian was the greatest poet of the early Church and the most celebrated of all the Syriac Fathers. Born about 306 at Nisibis, in what is now Turkey, he served the Church there as a teacher and deacon, and when the city was ceded to the Persians he withdrew to Edessa, where he spent his last years.
He never became a priest, remaining a deacon all his life out of humility, and lived in great simplicity, but his influence was vast. He was given the title 'Harp of the Holy Spirit' for his hymns — hundreds of them — in which he taught the faith and refuted heresy.
His method was itself an inspiration: when heretics spread their false doctrines through catchy songs, Ephrem answered them in kind, composing orthodox hymns of great beauty, training choirs — including, remarkably for the age, choirs of women — to sing them, and so winning the people back through music. His verse on the Nativity, on paradise, on faith, and on the Eucharist shaped Syriac Christianity ever after.
He died in 373, worn out after nursing the victims of a famine. Honoured across East and West, he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1920 — the only Syriac Father to be so named, and a patron of hymn writers and spiritual guides.
He fought heresy with melody: heretics were winning converts through catchy songs, so he wrote better ones.
Image: AnonymousUnknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/05498a.htm
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