Ephrem the Syrian Quotes

Ephrem the Syrian , also known as Saint Ephraem, Ephrem of Edessa, Ephrem, or Ephraim, was a Syriac Christian deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the fourth century.

Ephrem is especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church, and counted as a Venerable Father in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His feast day is celebrated on 28 January and on the Saturday of the Venerable Fathers. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church in 1920.

Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as prose exegesis. These were works of practical theology for the edification of the Church in troubled times. So popular were his works, that, for centuries after his death, Christian authors wrote hundreds of pseudepigraphal works in his name. He has been called the most significant of all of the fathers of the Syriac-speaking church tradition. Wikipedia

✵ 306 – 9. June 373

Famous Ephrem the Syrian Quotes

“O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, Thy servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love.”

Ephrem the Syrian

"Prayer of Ephrem" as translated in The Lenten Triodion (1978) by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, p. 69
Variant translations:
O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, your servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for you are blessed for ever and ever. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.
As translated in Who's Holding the Umbrella (1984) by William E. Yaeger, p. 70
Context: O Lord and Master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power and idle talk, but give to me, Thy servant, a spirit of soberness, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother: for blessed art Thou to the ages of ages. Amen. O God, cleanse me, a sinner.

“The hutzpah of our love is pleasing to you, O Lord, just as it pleased you that we should steal from your bounty.”

Ephrem the Syrian

Hymns on Faith 16:5

“Thy possessions have made thee a hollow image; they have ruined thee and left thee.”

Ephrem the Syrian

in A Spiritual Psalter (2004), p. 267