To view the large image of any picture, please click on
its thumbnail.
Mor Afrem Suryoyo (306 - 373 A.D.)
(A.K.A. St. Ephrem)
The most honored saints by all Syriac speaking churches, born in Nisibin, and
lived in Urhoy (Edessa/Urfa).
His prophecy about the rise of Assyria:
The return of Assyrians to Assyria
#A
#B
#C Mor Afrem
Cross-reference with the Bible:
The Old Testament; Book of Isaiah (19:23-25):
23 In that day shall there
be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt,
and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel
be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the
midst of the land:
25 Whom the Lord of hosts
shall bless saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel
mine inheritance.
The New Testament; Gospel of St. Matthew (12:41)
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall
condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas: and behold, a
greater than Jonas is here.
His Life
Mor Afrem Suryoyo, the great poet saint of the Syriac speaking Churches, he
was born in c. A.D. 306 in Nisibis (North-west of Mosul/Nineveh, Assyria). While
some late sources claim that his father was a heathen priest who worshiped an
idol called Abnil, his own writings affirm that he was raised in a Christian
family. (Adv. Haereses, XXVI. "I was born in the way of truth: though
my boyhood understood not the greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial
came." Again more explicitly, if we may trust a Confession which is extant only
in Greek, "I had been early taught about Christ by my parents; they who begat me
after the flesh, had trained me in the fear of the Lord... My parents were
confessors before the judge: yea, I am the kindred of martyrs.")
He was ordained deacon in c. A.D. 338 and served the Bishop of Nisibis, Mor
Ya`qub, who participated in the Synod of Nicaea (AD 325). He lived as a solitary
and apparently never entered into priesthood. After the cession of Nisibis to
Persia in AD 363, Ephrem withdrew into the Roman Empire and settled at Edessa
where he composed the hymns that survive to this day. Though in the
ecclesiastical hirearchy he was just a deacon, he is remembered as a great
doctor of the universal Church.
Ephrem wrote exclusively in Syriac, the Edessene dialect, but his works were
translated into Armenian and Greek, and via the latter into Latin and Slavonic.
Many works in these languages attributed to him are, however, not genuine. Much
of Ephrem's exegetical, dogmatic and ascetic works are in verse form. He wrote
several polemical works refuting the heresies of Marcion, Bardaisan, Mani, the
Arians and the Anomoeans. He wrote widely regarded biblical commentaries on
Genesis and the Diatesseron. His writings extensively employ typology and
symbolism. Over 500 genuine hymns survive, of great beauty and insight. His
poetry is in two genres: madrăshe (hymns) and memre (verse
homilies). After his death, the hymns were arranged into hymn cycles, the most
famous of which are those on Faith (including the five 'On the Pearl'), on
Paradise and on Nisibis (the second half of which is on the Descent of Christ
into Hell). His liturgical poetry had a great influence on Syriac and Greek
hymnography. Syriac churches honor him as 'the lyre of the Holy Spirit'.
Mor Ephrem departed to his heavenly abode on 9th of June, A.D. 373. His
memory is commemorated in the Syriac Orthodox Church on the first Saturday of
the Great Lent.
