Author Archives: tikhonpino

Among the works attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian in Greek, the lengthy treatise In Imitation of Proverbs (On the Fear of God), contains a short prayer that excerpts the longer Prayer of St. Ephrem. It reads, Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, meddling, and love of power give me not.Continue reading “A Variant of the Prayer of St. Ephrem”

On a recent trip to Iași, Romania, we picked up this wonderful little volume of “Prayers of St. Ephrem the Syrian.” This is a modern reprint* of the 1818 edition published at Neamţ Monastery. and a witness to the living tradition of Greek (or rather, Byzantine) Ephrem in the Orthodox Church.       * Bucharest:Continue reading “St. Ephrem in Romanian”

The ‘Links and Bibliography’ page is still a work in progress, but it has received a substantial number of updates over the past few days. Check out our expanded bibliography on Ephraem Graecus by clicking here.

Trevor Fiske Crowell has recently completed a doctoral dissertation, at my alma mater, on “The Biblical Homilies of Ephraem Graecus,” one of very few on the subject. You can download the entire thesis here. Thanks very much to Roger Pearse for bringing it to our attention.

Receiving some inspiration from Roger Pearse, with whose blog you might be familiar, we have added more links to many of the digitized manuscripts of Ephraem Graecus and other related texts. Click here to see some of these lovely manuscripts for yourself.

In honor of the Feast, we have added a few lines on the holy Cross of the Lord from a sermon attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian. Click here to read them.

On this great and holy day, enjoy a short excerpt from one of the many texts “On Repentance” attributed St. Ephrem. Here he explains Christ’s desire, and labor, for the salvation of every human being, with special reference to Pentecost. “He sent the Holy Spirit and sanctified the Church. He sent forth the Apostles toContinue reading “Greetings with the Feast of Pentecost”

The One Hundred Chapters: How One Attains Humility ascribed to St. Ephrem the Syrian is a series of short texts in the ‘centuries’ genre of monastic literature. It is composed of edifying apophthegmata and short stories that are both easy to read and easy to break up into small, digestible portions. This makes it anContinue reading “Chapters on Humility”

Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem: the Glory of the Lord has shone on thee! For the feast of the resurrection, we have added a short excerpt from an Ephremic text On Repentence. It is, to our knowledge, the only work in the corpus which contains the phrase Χριστὸς ἀνέστη (Christ is risen!). Image: Gospel lessonContinue reading “Christ is risen!”

For Holy Thursday, we have added an excerpt from the discourse On Those Who Inquire Into the Nature of the Son. This treatise is remarkable for its meditation on the way the human soul can penetrate the events of Scripture and be present at the miracles of Christ, including the Mystical Supper. Click here toContinue reading “For Holy Thursday”