Creation

Volume 1

© Publishing house of Prp. Maxim the Confessor, Barnaul, 2005

The Life and Works of St. Ephraim the Syrian[1]

The Monk Ephraim the Syrian [2] was probably born in the first years of the fourth century [3], in Nisibis, the main city of the northeastern part of Mesopotamia, or in its environs. His ancestors, as he himself testifies, were beggars who lived on alms; grandfathers had already become farmers and lived in prosperity; his parents were also farmers and were related to non-noble city dwellers [4]. But the ignobility of the family was rewarded by Christian virtues and the parents' care for the upbringing of their son in the fear of God. The Monk Ephraim himself speaks of the years of his youth: "I was already a partaker of grace — from the fathers I received instruction about Christ. Those who begat me according to the flesh inspired me with the fear of the Lord. I have seen neighbors living in piety, I have heard of many who suffered for Christ; the fathers confessed Him before the judge in my presence, I am a relative of the martyrs" [5].

Even in the first years of Ephraim's life, God showed the future greatness of the child in a significant vision, or dream, as a result of which, perhaps, he was called Ephraim, that is, fruitful. It was discovered that on the tongue of the child grew a vine tree, which at last grew so large that it covered the whole earth with its branches, and was so fruitful that the more the birds fed on its fruit, the more the fruit multiplied [6].

But the summers of youth did not pass for Ephraim without some stumbling-blocks. Naturally fiery, he was irritable, and impure desires were aroused in the young flesh from time to time. Ephraim himself later presented the first years of his youth in such traits, although, without a doubt, in his depiction it is impossible not to notice that deep humility that constituted a distinctive feature of his character in monasticism. "In my youth," he says in his Confessions, "I made a vow; However, in these short years I was malicious, beaten, quarreled with others, quarreled with neighbors, envious, was inhuman to strangers, cruel to friends, rude to the poor, quarrelled over unimportant matters, acted recklessly, indulged in evil designs and fornicatory thoughts, even not during the time of carnal excitement." And the inquisitiveness of a young, still immature mind, striving to comprehend that which is beyond its strength, or the frivolity of youth, has drawn it into certain doubts about God's Providence. "In my youth," he says, "when I was still living in the world, the enemy attacked me; and at this time my youth almost convinced me that what happens to us in life is accidental. Like a ship without a rudder, although the helmsman stands at the stern, goes backwards, or does not move at all, and sometimes capsizes if either an angel or a man does not come to its aid, so it was with me" [7].

But God's Providence did not leave the wavering young man without admonition, and the following events, told by Ephraim himself with deep contrition, served him as an intelligible lesson about Providence and a transition to a new way of life [8]. Once, by order of his parents, having gone out of the city, Ephraim was late and stopped to spend the night in the forest with a shepherd of sheep. At night, wolves attacked the flock and tore the sheep to pieces. When the shepherd announced this to the owners of the flock, they did not believe it and accused Ephraim of bringing thieves who had plundered the sheep. Ephraim was presented to the judge. "I made excuses," he says, "by telling how it happened. After me was brought a man who had been caught in adultery with a woman, who had run away and gone into hiding. The judge, postponing the investigation of the case, sent both of us to prison together. In prison we found a certain farmer who had been brought there for murder. But the one who was brought with me was not an adulterer, nor was the farmer a murderer, nor was I a sheep thief. Meanwhile, in the case of the farmer, the dead body, in my case, the shepherd, and in the case of the adulterer, the husband of the guilty woman; therefore, they were guarded in another house.

Having spent seven days there, on the eighth day I saw in a dream that someone said to me: "Be pious, and you will understand Providence; go over in your thoughts what you have thought and done, and you will know for yourself that these people do not suffer unjustly; but the guilty will not escape punishment." And so, when I awoke, I began to meditate on the vision, and, seeking out my transgression, I remembered that once, being in the same village, in the field, in the middle of the night, with evil intention, I drove out of the corral the cow of a poor wanderer. She was exhausted from the cold and from the fact that she was not idle; A beast overtook her there and tore her to pieces. As soon as I told the prisoners this dream and my guilt with me, they, excited by my example, began to tell about their own: the villager - that he saw a man drowning in the river, and could help him, but did not help; and a city dweller said that he had joined the accusers of a certain woman who had been slandered in adultery. "She," he said, "was a widow; her brothers, having brought this guilt against her, deprived her of her father's inheritance, giving a part of it to me, according to the condition." At these stories I began to be crushed, because in this there was some obvious recompense. And if all this happened only to me, one could say that all this happened to me for human reasons. But the three of us suffered the same fate. And so there is a fourth, the avenger, who is not related to those who suffer vain wrong, and is not known to us, because neither I nor they have ever seen him, for I have described to them the appearance of him who came to me in a dream.

I fell asleep another time, and I saw that the same man said to me: "Tomorrow you will see those because of whom you are offended, and release from the slander that has been raised against you."

On the next day, five more people accused of various crimes were presented to the governor, together with Ephraim and his other comrades in prison. Of these, two were brothers of a slandered widow, and had been taken to prison for other crimes which they had actually committed; and the other three were innocent of what they had been imprisoned for, but, as they themselves revealed themselves to Ephraim, they were guilty of perjury. The investigation of all these cases could not be completed soon. Meanwhile, another judge was appointed. The new judge knew Ephraim's parents and himself, but Ephraim did not immediately recognize him. On the eve of the day when all the prisoners were to appear before him at trial, Ephraim again saw in a dream the man saying: "The next day you will be released, and the rest will fall under a just judgment; be believers and proclaim the Providence of God." In fact, the next day the judge considered the cases of the accused; he recognized as innocent those who were put in prison by mistake or malice, and handed over to be devoured by beasts those who were caught or confessed to crimes.

"The judge," says Ephraim, "also commands me to be brought to the middle. Although he was close to me because of his own tribe, he nevertheless began to inquire about the matter in order, and tried to ask me how the matter of the sheep had been. I told the truth, how everything happened. Recognizing me by my voice and name, he ordered a shepherd to be whipped to inquire into the truth, and then released me from the accusation, after almost seventy days. My acquaintance with the judge came from the fact that my parents lived outside the city with those who had brought up this man; and I, too, from time to time had a residence with him...

After that, that same night, I saw my former husband, and he said to me: "Return to your place and repent of unrighteousness, having become convinced that there is an Eye that watches over everything." And having made strong threats to me, he departed; From that time until now I have not seen him" [9].