Ven. Ephrem the Syrian

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  

  Ven. Ephrem the Syrian

  Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373) was a deacon of Edessa and the greatest of the Syriac Fathers — poet, theologian, and teacher, whom the tradition names the Harp of the Holy Spirit. Born at Nisibis on the Roman–Persian frontier and formed under its bishop James of Nisibis, he taught in the schools of Nisibis and, after that city passed to Persia in 363, of Edessa, where he spent his last decade as an ascetic. He fought the heresies of his age — Bardaisan, Marcion, Mani, and the Arians — not chiefly in prose but in hymns (madrāšê) and metrical homilies (memrê) of extraordinary beauty, giving the faith of Nicaea to the Syriac Church in verse the people could sing. A deacon who is said to have fled ordination to the priesthood and the episcopate, humble and given to tears of compunction, he organised famine-relief at Edessa in his last days and reposed in 373. The Byzantine Church keeps him on January 28; his Lenten prayer, "O Lord and Master of my life," is prayed with prostrations throughout Great Lent.

• Our Holy Father Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nineveh (7th c.)

  Isaac the Syrian (c. 613 – c. 700), also called Isaac of Nineveh, was an East-Syriac monk and bishop whose Ascetical Homilies became one of the most beloved and formative texts of Orthodox spiritual life. Born in the region of Beth Qatraye on the Persian Gulf, he embraced the monastic life, was consecrated bishop of Nineveh, and after only five months laid down the office to return to the solitude of the mountains, where he lived as a hermit and finally at the monastery of Rabban Shabur, reading and weeping until he lost his sight. His homilies — on repentance and tears, humility, stillness, the discernment of the passions, pure prayer, and above all the immeasurable love of God — were translated from Syriac into Greek at the Lavra of Saint Sabbas and passed thence into the whole Orthodox world, treasured by hesychasts, gathered into the Philokalia's tradition, and rendered into Slavonic and every Orthodox tongue. Though he belonged by birth to the Church of the East, the Orthodox Church has received him without reserve as a teacher and saint, and keeps his memory on January 28.

• Ephraim of Pereyaslavl

  Ephraim of the Kiev Caves (†c. 1098) was a courtier of the Great Prince Izyaslav of Kiev who left the prince's service to become a monk under Saints Anthony and Theodosius at the Caves monastery. Sent to Constantinople, he brought back a copy of the Studite Rule, which Theodosius adopted as the constitution of the Caves and, through it, of Russian monasticism. Later consecrated bishop (and metropolitan) of Pereyaslavl, he adorned his city with churches and stone walls "in the Greek manner" and, in a work of rare Christian philanthropy, built free hospitals and public bath-houses for the poor and for travellers. He reposed about 1098 and was buried in the Far (Anthony) Caves, where his relics rest. He is commemorated on January 28 and among the Fathers of the Far Caves.

• James the Ascetic

  James the Ascetic (6th century), also called James the Faster, was a hermit near Porphyreon on the Phoenician coast whose life the Church holds up as one of her great examples of the power of repentance. After long years of ascetic labour, in which he received a gift of healing, he fell — tempted, he violated a young woman brought to him for her cure, and then, to conceal the deed, took her life. Cast into despair by the double sin, he was drawn back from the brink by the counsel of an experienced elder and gave himself to a repentance so profound — years enclosed in a tomb, weeping without ceasing — that God, in token of his forgiveness, answered his prayer for rain in a time of drought. He reposed in peace. His memory teaches that no fall is beyond the mercy of God for the soul that truly repents. He is commemorated on January 28.

• Palladius of Antioch

  Palladius the Hermit (†end of the 4th century) was an ascetic who lived in a mountain cave near Antioch in Syria, where he received from God a gift of wonderworking. The tradition remembers him above all for a single striking miracle: when a murdered merchant was left at the door of his cell and the hermit was accused of the crime, Palladius prayed over the dead man, who rose and named his true killers, so that the saint was cleared and the murderers convicted. He left behind several edifying writings and reposed in peace. He is commemorated on January 28, and belongs to the great company of the Syrian desert-fathers of the Antiochene hinterland.

British Isles and Ireland

• Holy Pilgrim-Martyrs Brigid and Maura (4th C)
• St. Cannera of Bantry (530)
• St. Glastian of Kiunglassie (830)
• St. John the Wise of Malmesbury, monk (8th C)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings