June 9, 2021 - Saint Ephrem, Memorial (Fr. Patrick Carr)

2 Corinthians 3:4-11 • Matthew 5:17-19

Ephrem the Deacon ministered to the Christian community in Nisibis, a city repeatedly besieged by the Persian army. In 363, he fled Nisibis with the rest of the Christians, to Edessa (present-day Urfa, in Turkey). Heresies were rife in the town. He lived austerely in the hillside outside the city, but frequently came into Edessa to refute the heretics. A deeply sensitive man, Ephrem was said to weep almost constantly. His ardent liturgical hymns are used even today in the liturgies of the Syrian rite. In 373, Ephrem, alone of the Edessans, was trusted to dispense grain to the famine-ravaged city. He died shortly thereafter of illness.