desniza

The Holy Synod of Greece is asked to return 5 million euros&gifts by the late Archbishop Christodoul

2008-07-30T10:21:23Z

The Church of Greece could be set to take legal action against the employees of its non-governmental organization (NGO) Allilegi (Solidarity) after the results of an internal probe are made known to the Holy Synod today.

Sources said that the investigation has revealed that funds totaling some 10 million euros appear to be missing from the organization’s accounts.

It is thought that the money was spent on activities that had nothing to do with the NGO. There are questions about the outlay of some 150,000 euros on items that were given as gifts by the late Archbishop Christodoulos, as well as the purchase of cars that were used by some bishops.

Also, the Foreign Ministry is demanding the return of 5 million euros that it gave to Allilegi for the distribution of food abroad, which was never carried out.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios avoided replying for an autocephalous church in Kiev

2008-07-28T09:48:29Z

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios (c) walks in Kiev yesterday with Russian Patriarch Alexy II (r) and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who asked for an autocephalous church in Kiev. Vartholomaios avoided replying but called for ‘unity’ among the Ukrainian flock.

Greece’s Holy Synod decided that Archbishop Ieronymos should attend a service to mark 1,020 years

2008-07-23T12:09:10Z

The head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, will attend a service in Kiev on Sunday despite threats by the Russian Orthodox Church that it could split from the Ecumenical Patriarchate over possible recognition of the Ukrainian Church.

The service in Kiev, held to mark 1,020 years since the Christianization of the Russians, has taken on an air of controversy after Russian Patriarch Alexy II launched a verbal attack against the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios.

Vartholomaios responded yesterday by sending a letter to Alexy calling his remarks “insulting.”

Alexy had called for Orthodox leaders to boycott the service in Kiev but, in a vote held by Greece’s Holy Synod yesterday, it was decided by 11 votes in favor to one against that Ieronymos should go. He will be accompanied by the bishops of Chios and Preveza.

The Sacred Relics of Constantinople

2008-07-12T18:43:43Z

Robert of Clari

The Sacred Relics of Constantinople

When the city was captured and the pilgrims were quartered, as Ι have told you, and the palaces were taken over, then they found in the palaces riches more than a great deal. And the palace of Boukoleon was very rich and was made in such a way, as Ι shall tell you. Within this palace, which was held by the marquis, there were fully five hundred halls, all connected with one another and all made with gold mosaic. And in it there were fully thirty chapels, great and small, and there was one of them which was called the Holy Chapel, which was so rich and noble that there was not a hinge nor a band nor any other part such as is usually made of iron that was not all of silver, and there was no column that was not of jasper or porphyry or some other rich precious stone. And the pavement of this chapel was of a white marble so smooth and clear that it seemed to be of crystal, and this chapel was so rich and so noble that no one could ever tell you its great beauty and nobility. Within this chapel were found many rich relics. One found there two pieces of the True Cross as large as the leg of a man and as long as half a toise, and one found there also the iron of the lance with which Our Lord had His side pierced and two of the nails which were driven through His hands and feet, and one found there in a crystal phial quite a little of His blood, and one found there the tunic which He wore and which was taken from Him when they led Him to the Mount of Calvary, and one found there the blessed crown with which He was crowned, which was made of reeds with thorns as sharp as the points of daggers. And one found there a part of the robe of Our Lady and the head of my lord St. John the Baptist and so many other rich relics that Ι could not recount them to you or tell you all the truth.

Now there was still another relic in this chapel, which we had forgotten to tell you about. For there were two rich vessels of gold hanging in the midst of the chapel by two heavy silver chains. In one of these vessels there was a tile and in the other a cloth. And we shall tell you where these relics came from. There was once a holy man in Constantinople. It happened that this holy man was covering the house of a widow with tile for the love of God. And as he was covering it, Our Lord appeared to him and said to him (now this good man had a cloth wrapped about him): "Give me that cloth," said Our Lord. And the good man gave it to Him, and Our Lord enveloped His face with it so that His features were imprinted on it. And then He handed it back to him, and He told him to carry it with him and touch the sick with it, and whoever had faith in it would be healed of his sickness. And the good man took it and carried it away; but before he carried it away, after God had given him back his cloth, the good man took it and hid it under a tile until vespers. At vespers, when he went away, he took the cloth, and as he lifted up the tile, he saw the image imprinted on the tile just as it was on the cloth, and he carried the tile and the cloth away, and afterwards he cured many sick with them. And these relics were hanging in the midst of the chapel, as Ι have told you. Now there was in this chapel still another relic, for there was an image of St. Demetrius, which was painted on a panel. This image gave off so much oil that it could not be removed as fast as it flowed from the picture. [And there was another palace in the city, called the palace of Blachernae.] And there were fully twenty chapels there and at least two hundred chambers, or three hundred, all connected with one another and all made of gold mosaic. And this palace was so rich and so noble that no one could describe it to you or recount its great nobility and richness. In this palace of Blachernae there was found a very great treasure, for one found there the rich crowns which had belonged to former emperors and the rich ornaments of gold and the rich cloth of silk and gold and the rich imperial robes and the rich precious stones and so many other riches that no one could number the great treasure of gold and silver that was found in the palaces and in many other places in the city.

[From The Conquest of Constantinople, translated by Ε. Η. McNeal, New York: Columbia University Press, (reprint 1964), 1936. P. 102-105]

Joint mass at St Peter's Basilica

2008-06-30T15:00:57Z

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios l and Pope Benedict XVI appealed for Christian unity yesterday during a joint mass at St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Vartholomaios said that dialogue between the two branches of Christianity is continuing, despite 'numerous difficulties.'

Archbishop Ieronymos condemned nationalists in Church

2008-06-25T16:17:44Z

Archbishop Ieronymos yesterday condemned “isolated nationalist outbursts... that do not serve the interests of the Church” in an apparent dig at Bishop Anthimos who has been outspoken on the Macedonia name dispute.

“Such phenomena endanger and undermine the viability and the serious nature of our positions,” Ieronymos said. Thessaloniki’s Bishop Anthimos, a vocal critic of perceived expansionism by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), has intensified his objections in recent months as Skopje and Athens fail to see eye to eye on the name dispute. “We will never accept the name Macedonia going to the neighboring country, which has stolen and usurped it,” Anthimos remarked last month.

In a related development, the Holy Synod elected three new bishops: Archimandrite Theophilos Manolatos was elected bishop of Lefkada, the See of Thebes was granted to the head monk of the local Osios Loukas Monastery and Archimandrite Kallinikos Demenopoulos was elected bishop of Paronaxia (Paros, Naxos and Antiparos).

Armed Greek Police Plan to Forcibly Remove Peaceful Monks. Press Release of the Esphigmenou

2008-06-10T20:19:49Z

Today the Greek government deployed hundreds of armed police to forcibly remove the monks of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou from their monastery. Under the leadership of foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, all roads to the monastery have been sealed off and over 200 police in full riot gear are on Mt. Athos , with an additional 400 police deploying to assist in the pending assault. Their expressed plan is to forcibly remove the peaceful and defenseless monks and their long-standing Abbot Methodios from their monastery, and replace them with those who pray in accordance with the dictates of the Greek government.

The government has authorized the use of force to resolve a religious dispute after failing to starve the monks into leaving their monastery during a 5-year blockade. In this time, they have denied the monks deliveries of food, medicine, heating oil, and access to medical attention while simultaneously subjecting them to a non-stop campaign of official harassment and intimidation.

The local Greek prosecutor, Vasilis Floridis, has destroyed the livelihood of these peaceful monks who seek to be left alone to pray in their monastery. Last week Floridis sent a letter to senior government officials calling the monks a "national threat" and demanding their removal. This is the same prosecutor who in October 2006 threatened "grave consequences" to anyone who dared raise their voice to protest these actions.

The monks have repeatedly requested dialogue with the Greek government as well as Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul to resolve this dispute. The Patriarch, who has declared the monks "schismatic," has refused to aid in the peaceful reconciliation of this dispute.

For the last five years, the U.S. Government has cited Greece for its treatment of the Esphigmenou monks in its International Religious Freedom Report issued by the Department of State.

For more information please contact John Rigas +1-617-971-0091

Ieronymos called for the Church to stay away from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's Church

2008-05-28T15:27:40Z

Archbishop Ieronymos yesterday called for the Church to stay away from politics in a comment aimed at the head of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's Orthodox Church as well as Greek holy men who want to interfere in foreign affairs.

The head of Greece's Church was responding to comments by FYROM's Archbishop Stephan. He had suggested over the weekend that Thessaloniki was the Balkan country's heartland.

«That's what happens when people exceed their role,» Ieronymos said. «The Church is supposed to unite people.»

Sources close to the archbishop said the comment was also aimed at critics in the Church of Greece who feel that Ieronymos is not as active as he should be in foreign affairs. Earlier this year, he made it clear he was against the Church's involvement in gatherings to protest the name dispute with Greece's northern neighbor.

His position was applauded yesterday by PASOK leader George Papandreou, who said he was in full agreement with Ieronymos's view on the separation of Church and state.

Four women from Moldova found on Mt Athos

2008-05-27T16:46:04Z

Four female illegal immigrants were detained yesterday in northern Greece’s Mount Athos, where women have been forbidden from entering for the last 1,000 years, after being dropped off there by smugglers.

The women and a man, all from Moldova, were spotted by monks after reaching the area in a speedboat from Turkey.

The immigrants, aged between 27 and 41, said they had crossed over into Greece from the Turkish coast and did not realize they had been left on the monastic peninsula.

They told police they each paid 4,000 euros to two Ukrainian smugglers for the transfer from the Turkish port of Canakkale.

Authorities were combing the area yesterday searching for more illegal immigrants who may have reached the peninsula.

Woman are prohibited from entering Mount Athos, a monastic community dating back to 10th century.

The ban is upheld by Greece’s Constitution and violations are punishable by up to a year in prison.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios arrived in Greece

2008-05-14T16:22:24Z

The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios (left), arrived in Greece yesterday for a four-day visit and talks with Archbishop Ieronymos (right). ‘In your venerable person, we have always discerned the good shepherd, the honest servant of the Church, the eminent theologist and scientist, the open-minded individual,’ Ieronymos told the visiting patriarch. Vartholomaios is also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and President Karolos Papoulias.

Archbishop Ieronymos has used his first official trip to the Ecumenical Patriarchate

2008-05-12T11:13:44Z

The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, and the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, conducted a service together in Istanbul yesterday and pledged to work more closely.

Ieronymos has used his first official trip to the Patriarchate since becoming archbishop earlier this year to resolve past differences and place relations between the two churches on a new footing.

“We are brothers, united by a common faith and tradition,” said Vartholomaios yesterday. Ieronymos indicated a willingness to operate largely in the ecumenical patriarch’s shadow. “We have nothing to offer you other than the devotion that children can offer to their parents,” he said.

Ieronymos’s predecessor, Christodoulos, had often clashed with Vartholomaios over Church matters.

Lecture on «Imagining Constantinople» by Cyril Mango

2008-05-05T13:58:43Z

The Gennadius Library holds a lecture on «Imagining Constantinople» by Cyril Mango, professor emeritus at Oxford University, starting at 7 p.m. at Cotsen Hall (9 Anapiron Polemou). For details, call 210.721.0536 or log on to www.gennadius.gr.

Χριστός άνέστη!

2008-04-27T08:10:39Z

Χριστός άνέστη!

Khristos voskrese!
Il Signore è risorto!

Christ is risen!
Christus ist auferstanden!
Le Christ est ressuscité!
Kristus je vstal!
Christos vstal z mŕtvych!
Christos a inviat!
Harisutosu fukkatsu!
Helisituosi fuhuole!
Al-Mesih qaam!

المسيح قام
ქრისტეაღსდგა

Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers scuffled at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

2008-04-21T14:50:05Z

Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers scuffled at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday yesterday, part of a growing rivalry over religious rights at Christianity’s holiest shrine.

In the fight, a Greek priest was pushed to the ground and kicked, according to witnesses from both sides. Two Armenian worshippers were briefly detained by Israeli police.

A spokesman said he did not know the precise cause of the scuffle.

Fights are not uncommon among the representatives of Christian sects who jealously guard their rights to parts of the centuries-old church.

Scores of Armenian supporters staged a protest outside the police station during the questioning of the two, beating drums and chanting.

Archbishop Ieronymos canceled a visit to see Ecumenical Patriarch

2008-03-27T10:57:12Z

Archbishop Ieronymos was yesterday discharged from the hospital where he had been receiving treatment for a foot fracture. Ieronymos canceled a scheduled visit tomorrow to Istanbul, where he had planned to see Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios.

Ieronymos distanced himself from the Holy Synod

2008-03-25T10:05:12Z

Archbishop Ieronymos yesterday distanced himself from the Holy Synod, which last week described cohabitation between unmarried couples as “prostitution,” saying the Church should be more open-minded and less moralizing.

“The Church is what Christ wants it to be, not what people want it to be,” Ieronymos told a congregation at Kalamata Cathedral. “We are giving the impression that the role of the Church is to force people to be good,” he said. Ieronymos cited the example of Saint Dionysus of Zakynthos, who reached sainthood even though he had sinned by harboring a criminal.

The Holy Synod’s statement, apparently influenced by Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki, was a reaction to government plans to introduce a cohabitation law granting the same rights to couples who live together as those who are married.

Church against cohabitation

2008-03-18T11:50:39Z

In the most emphatic fashion, the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod yesterday declared its opposition to the government’s bid to give unmarried couples greater rights by stating that any form of relationship other than a couple married in an Orthodox Church is tantamount to “prostitution.”

The Synod’s reaction signals an about-turn for Archbishop Ieronymos, who last week appeared to accept that changing the bill was beyond the Church’s sphere of influence.

However, this was completely overturned yesterday when the Synod issued a statement saying that it did not approve of the government trying to make its proposals part of the country’s legal framework.

The new law is set to allow unmarried couples to make their relationship official and legally binding by signing a simple notarial contract. This would give each partner the same rights as if the couple were married.

The Synod said that the draft law constituted a “catastrophic bomb” being placed under the foundations of Greek society.

“The Church accepts and blesses the established wedding, according to Orthodox traditions, and considers any other type of similar relationship to be prostitution,” the Synod said in a statement.

Sources said that Ieronymos had wanted the Synod to adopt a more moderate approach in line with his comments last week but most of the other 12 members of the Synod seemed to favor a more outspoken stance.

“That was the opinion of one person, this is the opinion of 13,” said Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki, a member of the Synod, explaining the difference between Ieronymos’s position last week and this week.

Church clears cohabitation law

2008-03-14T15:53:50Z

The head of the Church of Greece yesterday gave a green light to the government's plans to introduce a law that would allow couples who live together to have the same rights as those that are married.

Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis presented the proposals to Archbishop Ieronymos amid concern that the Church might object to the change of law.

However, Ieronymos, who was elected to succeed Archbishop Christodoulos last month, indicated that trying to interfere in the details of the law is beyond the Church's remit.

«The members of the Church follow the dictates of the Bible, the rules of the Church, the order of the ecumenical synods and the holy tradition,» said the archbishop.

«As a result, there are clear limits and in respect to this matter, the Church does not have the right to ask for it to be watered down or to have any other request granted.»

The new law is set to allow unmarried couples to make their relationship official and legally binding by signing a simple notarial contract.

The contract would remain in effect, thus ensuring full protection of both partners' legal rights, until they get married or one marries someone else.

There are no plans to extend the law to same-sex couples, although this may be considered in the future.

Yesterday's meeting came as a lesbian couple announced that they will try next week to become the first same-sex partners to be married in a civil ceremony by taking advantage of a 1982 law which does not specify that a civil union must be between a man and a woman.

Ieronymos appeared to take a philosophical approach to the changes that are afoot.

«Some people who have certain problems choose to regulate their lives in their own way,» he said.

«The Church cannot keep a check on this by enforcing measures like the police.»

The archbishop said that following his discussion with the minister he was confident that the proper research would be carried out to see what the public thinks of introducing a cohabitation law.

Gratian's Decretum

2008-03-11T22:14:10Z

Manuscript of Gratian's Decretum.
Cologne, Cathedral Library, 127 fol. 9r.
Twelfth century.
Written at Cologne, (glossed) by various jurists.

Church probe in Greece

2008-03-02T16:34:49Z

The Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church yesterday said it would conduct an investigation into the activities of Allileghii (Solidarity), the Orthodox Church’s charity organization. Church officials will probe the organization’s finances and administration, sources said. In January, the Foreign Ministry asked Allileghii to return more than 6 million euros that had been destined for victims of the December 2004 tsunami amid speculation that the funds were not used on food aid as had been intended.

The Vita of St. Ephrem the Syrian

2008-02-28T18:05:52Z

St. Ephrem the Syrian, known as 'Harp of the Holy Spirit' is undoubtedly the greatest poet and theologian that the Syrian Church ever produced. In the words of Dr. Murray, he is 'the greatest poet of the patristic age and perhaps the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante.[1]

St. Ephrem was not only a well-known figure in the Syriac-speaking world but also had a great reputation in the Greek East as well as the Latin West. Within the patristic age itself Ephrem's reputation as a holy man, poet and a noteworthy theologian was widely known far beyond his Syrian homeland. Less than fifty years after Ephrem's death 'Palladius included a notice of him among the ascetic saints whose memory he celebrated in the Lausiac History. Sozomen the historian celebrated Ephraem's memory as a popular ecclesiastical writer, some of whose works had been translated into Greek even during his lifetime. St. Jerome recognized Ephraem's theological genius in a Greek translation he read of a book by Ephraem on the Holy Spirit. And toward the end of the fifth century, Gennadius of Marseilles called attention to Ephraem as a composer of metrical psalms.[2]

The testimonies to the great popularity of St. Ephrem throughout the medieval Christian world all refer to works in Greek. Although Sozomen the historian testifies that Ephrem's works were translated during the saint's lifetime, the scholars today have come to recognize that there is only a spiritual affinity between the writers of the works ascribed to St. Ephrem in Greek and those attributed to him in Syriac. Moreover, in the hagiographical tradition, an examination of the Greek and Syriac sources for the saint's life gives us two different images of St. Ephrem. This is also reflected in the iconographical tradition. For the sake of convenience Dr. Griffith styles these two different depicted characters of the saint as 'icon of Ephrem Byzantinus' and the portrait of 'Ephrem the Syrus'.[3]

The 'icon of Ephrem Byzantinus' is the product of the writers in the Greco-Syrian monastic communities of the fifth and sixth centuries. They transmitted the works of St. Ephrem in Greek as well as Syriac, and they even composed new hymns and homilies in Ephrem's style and ascribed them to him. Also, they composed the Syriac Vita of St. Ephrem and a Syriac work called the Testament of St. Ephrem, which is also attributed to him. These two works are the primary sources for the literary icon of Ephrem Byzantinus.[4]

In the Vita, Ephrem is depicted as a monk living in a cave on the mountain near Edessa. He only leaves his cave shortly before his death to supervise relief efforts in Edessa during a severe famine. Incidentally, he is said to have composed some madroshe (doctrinal hymns) and memre (verse homilies) in Syriac, to overcome the heresy of Bar Daysan (154-222), a native of Edessa. In this account, to ensure the authenticity of his monastic lifestyle, Ephrem is said to have visited St. Bishoi (Pisoes) in the Egyptian Desert. Even today a visitor to Deyr al-Suryan monastery in Wadi al-Natron is shown a tree claimed to have been planted by St. Ephrem during his visit there. The Vita also tells of his visit to St. Basil of Caesarea in order to guarantee his orthodoxy for the Imperial Church. He flees priestly ordination at Basil's hands, in good monastic style, though he accepts the office of the diaconate. Parallel to this account, the Testament of St. Ephrem reflects the world-view of a monastic hero, a desert solitary whose stories John of Ephesus may have told. According to Dr. Griffith, 'This literary, or verbal icon, in fact must lie behind the best-known artistic presentation of St. Ephraem, the composition known as the 'Dormition of Ephraem Syrus', in which Ephrem's body, lying on a funeral slab, surrounded by mourners, is the focal point of a tableau made of other scenes from a cycle of hermits, stylites and recluses.[5] Examples of this are to be found both in the Vatican gallery and the Monastery of Dokherias on Mount Athos. This is a perfect presentation of the profile of 'Ephraem Byzantinus'.

In the portrait of 'Ephrem the Syrus' on the other hand, which is the recovery of Ephrem's genuine works in Syriac and other texts in Syriac, 'we find no mention whatsoever of any monastic tendencies, but instead only an overwhelmingly and entirely consistent picture of Ephrem as teacher and caretaker of the souls of the flock and even as a friend and advisor to his bishops.[6] Ephrem was born in 303 to Christian parents (Hymns Against Heresies 26.10), in or around Nisibis and received baptism in his youth (Hymns on Virginity 37.10.1-4). He became a 'teacher' (malpana) and a poet who for the majority of his almost seventy years, served the bishops of Nisibis namely Jacob, Babu and Vologeses (Hymns on Nisibis 13-21), as a catechist, biblical exegete, and liturgical composer. When Rome handed over Nisibis to Persia in 363, Ephrem was forced to leave the town and move some hundred miles west to Edessa where he served Abraham, the bishop of Edessa, for the last ten years of his life in the same capacity. He died in 373. St. Ephrem was certainly not a monk; but as an unmarried man he was probably a 'single' person (ihidaya) dedicated to the service of God.[7]

Ephrem refers to himself as a 'herdsman'('alana), a member of the shepherd-bishop's pastoral staff. At the end of his Hymns Against the Heresies Ephrem wrote of himself, saying:

O Lord, may the works of your herdsman ('alana)
not be negated.
I will not then have troubled your sheep,
but as far as I was able,
I will have kept the wolves away from them,
and I will have built, as far as I was capable,
Enclosures of madrashe
for the lambs of your flock.

I will have made a disciple
of the simple and unlearned man,
And I will have given him a strong hold
on the herdsmen's ('alone) staff,
the healers' medicine,
and the disputants' armor.[8]

This is all that Ephrem is telling us about his role and position in the Church. It is probable that he was a deacon but there is no early Syriac text that identifies him as such. The word ('alana) translated as 'herdsman' is very difficult to define precisely. Most often it is interpreted in relation to the Greek tradition simply as a term meaning deacon. But the normal Syriac word for deacon is mshamshono. As Dr. Matthews has noted, the term ('alana) 'is often used to denote a disciple in relation to his master, most significantly, after the pattern of that of Elisha to Elijah. Though in this instance, the term expresses Ephrem's relationship to God, it is this very same relationship of Ephrem to his bishops'.[9] What inspired the Syriac writers to celebrate Ephrem as a teacher par excellence was the fame of his teaching and that of the holiness of his life. The same also led the hagiographers in the Greek-speaking world, and those under their influence, to fashion the image of Ephrem Byzantinus.[10]

Iconography

In the iconographic tradition the way St. Ephrem is portrayed is not all that different from the literary or verbal icon of the saint himself. In iconography, as in the case of hagiography, one may classify the icons into two different types. The first type of icons is largely based on his Vita that developed in Greco-Syrian monastic circles. The other type is that which depicts St. Ephrem closer to the image that emerges from his authentic writings and other texts in Syriac. Especially some modern Syriac icons attempt to portray him in this way. The former may correspond to what Dr. Griffith has termed the 'icon of Ephrem Byzantinus', and the latter to what he named the portrait of 'Ephrem the Syrus' in his writing about the images of Ephrem. For the sake of convenience, one may classify the extant iconographic images of St. Ephrem as follows:

Icons that fall under the type 'Ephrem Byzantinus':
- St. Ephrem in monastic habit. (The modern icon that covers Kathleen McVey's book, Ephrem the Syrian Hymns, in the Classics of Western Spirituality series).
- 'Dormition of Ephrem Syrus' in which St. Ephrem's body is lying on a funeral slab and surrounded by mourners. (See John R. Martin, 'The Death of Ephraim in Byzantine and Early Italian Painting,' The Art Bulletin 33 (1951), pp. 217-225).
- St. Ephrem featured with a scroll and vine. (Based on the Vita, 14, 15).
Icons that may fall under the type of 'Ephrem the Syrus':
- St. Ephrem as a deacon. (He is depicted in liturgical vestments holding a thurifer in his hand. An original type of this icon today adorns the wall of St. Mary's Syrian Orthodox Church in Diyarbekõr, Turkey).
- St. Ephrem with St. Basil. This is the earliest surviving icon portraying St. Ephrem in a rather appropriate way. (Illustrated in K. A. Manafis (ed.), Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of St. Catherine (Athens, 1990), p. 145).
- St. Ephrem the 'Harp of the Holy Spirit'. (The modern icon of St. Ephrem that came out recently from the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria).

Liturgical Material

In the area of liturgical tradition for the feast of St. Ephrem, Dr. Brock has published a very good article.[11] His study, for reasons of practicality, is confined to the printed editions of the Hudra and Panqitho (hymnodies or liturgical books for the yearly cycle of prayers for Sundays and feastdays in the Syriac Church). Hudra is used in the East Syrian and Panqitho in the West Syrian Churches. Here, I shall closely follow Brock's observations and incorporate a great deal from him.

St. Ephrem is commemorated both in Eastern and Western Syrian tradition. In the Church of the East his commemoration feast, along with other Syriac teachers falls on Friday of the fifth week after Epiphany. The printed Hudra offers little that is very specific: Ephrem (along with Narsai) is celebrated as a teacher who 'interpreted and illuminated the Scripture', and who 'quenched and rendered ineffective the sects of the erroneous heretics'. Ephrem is compared to a 'skilled doctor who blended the insights of the Scriptures for the healing of the sick world's ill'. Furthermore, we read in the Hudra that Ephrem 'became a fountain and caused life to flow for the whole world.'

In the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, the feast of St. Ephrem (together with St. Theodore) is commemorated on Saturday of the first week of Great Lent. One of the striking features of the liturgical texts commemorating the saint is the considerable use made of memro (metrical homily) on Ephrem by Jacob of Serugh.[12] This is either direct quotation from the memra or in a rephrased prose form. The direct quotations comprise couplets 21-29 and 148-162 of Amar's recent edition of the memra. These include a couplet (152) which specifically refers to Ephrem's role in instructing the women. The couplet reads: 'This man introduced women to doctrinal disputes; with (their) soft tones he was victorious in the battle against all heresies.' Further material that is derived from the memro is found primarily in Sedro (a long discourse that usually follows a Premion in the book of Husoyo, the Syriac liturgical book of propitiatory prayers) which features in the commemoration feast for 28 January (Syrian Catholic only) and on Saturday of the first week of Lent in the Syrian Orthodox Church.

Naturally, the influence of the sixth century Vita is also reflected in several passages, such as 'God caused Ephrem to pass from paganism and brought him to true faith.' Also, the anecdote concerning the scroll and vine (Vita 14-15) feature here. The scroll is an indirect comparison of Ephrem's divine inspiration with Ezekiel's consuming of a scroll (Ezekiel 3: 1-3). There are also references to Ephrem's ascetic life on the mountains of Edessa (based on 13 of the Vita) which talk of 'the fragrance of (Ephrem's) life of mourning' (riho d-'abiluta). There is also a madrosho (doctrinal poem in stanzaic form) on Ephrem that says he was sent to Edessa to combat the heresies of Mani, Marcion and Armianos, son of Bar Daisan. Also from the Vita are a few references to the meeting with St. Basil. There are also many other references from the Vita that feature in the liturgical texts of the feast. Finally, the Mosul edition of the Panqitho contains one of the supposedly autobiographical texts ascribed to St. Ephrem, a Sogitho (dialogue poem) beginning with 'How often have I hungered...' This Sogitho is also to be found in the current hymnal book of the Syrian Orthodox Church titled: Zmirotho d-Ito, Songs of the Church, and is chanted at the Divine Liturgy commemorating the feast of the saint that falls on Saturday during the first week of Lent.

The West Syriac liturgical tradition for the commemoration feast of St. Ephrem as we have seen above, draws on a variety of sources, primarily on Jacob of Serugh's memro on St. Ephrem and the Vita. As Dr. Brock has concluded, 'The result, not surprisingly, is that no consistent portrait is offered of the saint who is being commemorated.[13]

Regarding the transformations that have taken place in the Syriac tradition with the portrait of St. Ephrem, Dr. Brock offers a good explanation. He says: 'Perhaps all that the fifth -and sixth- century biographers wanted to do was to present the saint in modern guise, to make him relevant to their own context.[14] Dr. Griffith, further illustrating this point, states: 'It was not that the Syriac-speaking monks in the Greco-Syrian communities of east Byzantium were deliberately trying to conceal St. Ephraem's true identity behind an Evagrian mask. Rather, their intention was doubtless to praise the virtues of their most famous holy man, in the newly popular Byzantine idiom of asceticism in which the citizens of fifth and sixth-century Edessa were desperate to claim a place of pride for themselves and for their city. So it was that in popular piety Ephraem, the bishop's man, became St. Ephraem, the model Byzantine monk, the deacon of Edessa.[15]

Some Concluding Remarks

By way of a conclusion, I would like to say that St. Ephrem's memre and madrashe, the homilies and hymns, became central to both East and West Syrian liturgical tradition, and his works have played a decisive role and influenced all aspects of Syrian ecclesiastical life. His fame as a hymnodist and ascetic spread to all branches of the Church. And today, thanks above all to the late Dom Edmund Beck's editions of St. Ephrem's genuine works, and the work of other prominent scholars in the field, there is a universal appeal to St. Ephrem. He has become a spiritual Father for the whole Church.

Bibliography

Amar, Joseph P., The Syriac Vita Tradition of Ephrem the Syrian, Ph.D. Diss., The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., 1988.

Amar, Joseph P. (Ed.), A metrical Homily on Mar Ephrem by Mar Jacob of Sarug, Turnhout, 1995 (Patrologia Orientalis 47, fasc. 1, no. 209).

Beck, Edmund, Des Heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen contra Haereses, Louvain, 1957 (CSCO, vol. 169-170; Script. Syr. 76-77).

Notes

[1] Robert Murray, 'Ephrem Syrus', Catholic Dictionary of Theology, vol. II, London, 1967, pp. 220-223.

[2] Sidney Griffith, 'Images of Ephraem: the Syrian Holy Man and his Church', Traditio, (1989-1990), p. 7.

[3] Sidney Griffith, 'A Spiritual Father for the Whole Church: the Universal Appeal of St. Ephraem the Syrian', Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, vol. 1 (1998) no. 2, §5 http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/vol1No2/HV1N2Griffith.html.

[4] Idem, §6. See also Joseph P. Amar, The Syriac Vita tradition of Ephrem the Syrian (Ph.D. Dissertation, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., 1988).

[5] Ibid. §7.

[6] Edward G. Matthews, Jr., 'The Vita Tradition of Ephrem the Syrian, the Deacon of Edessa', Diakonia 22, (1988-1989), p. 26.

[7] On the significance of this title see Sidney Griffith, 'Asceticism in the Church of Syria: the Hermeneutics of Early Syrian Monasticism', Vincent L. Wimbush & Richard Valantasis (eds.), Asceticism, New York, 1995, pp. 220-245.

[8] Edmund Beck, Ephrem des Syrers Hymnen contra Haereses, Louvain, 1957 (CSCO, vol. 169-170; 76-77), vol. 169, 56: 10 & 11, pp. 211-212. Quoted by Sidney Griffith, 'A Spiritual Father for the Whole Church...', §8.

[9] Edward G. Matthews, Jr., 'The Vita Tradition of Ephrem...', p. 28.

[10] Cf. Sidney Griffith, 'A Spiritual Father for the Whole Church....', §9.

[11] Sebastian Brock, 'St. Ephrem in the Eyes of Later Syriac Liturgical Tradition', Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, vol. 2, (1999), no. 1.

[12] See Joseph P. Amar, A Metrical Homily on Mar Ephrem by Mar Jacob of Sarug, Patrologia Orientalis 47, fasc. 1, no. 209, Turnhout, 1995. [Critical edition of the Syriac text with translation and introduction].

[13] Sebastian Brock, 'St. Ephrem in the Eyes of the Later Syriac Liturgical Tradition', § 23.

[14] Idem, § 24.

[15] Sidney Griffith, 'Images of Ephraem...', pp. 32-33.

Ieronymos to avoid politics

2008-02-18T20:18:50Z

Archbishop Ieronymos is seen yesterday at Athens Cathedral where he led his first service since being appointed head of the Church of Greece. Ieronymos pledged not to interfere in in-party politics, clearly differentiating his stance from his predecessor Christodoulos.

Archbishop Ieronymos yesterday pledged to avoid interfering in politics, distancing himself from his predecessor Christodoulos, during his first service at Athens Cathedral.

The 70-year-old moderate reformist, who was officially enthroned as archbishop on Saturday, also praised Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, who had frequently clashed with Christodoulos. Vartholomaios is “a man deeply rooted in tradition but who also understands the issues of our times,” Ieronymos said, calling for all Orthodox churches to rally around the Istanbul-based patriarchate. Reacting to the archbishop’s speech, Vartholomaios said he was “extremely moved” due to the occasional “misinterpretation” of his role.

But the new archbishop did promise to continue his predecessor’s efforts to open up the Church to young people, saying he would set up a youth council to advise him.

Ieronymos also pledged to cooperate with the state on fighting poverty, supporting disabled citizens and boosting the social integration of immigrants.

Monastery raid in Greece

2008-02-16T11:43:10Z

Unidentified robbers removed a section of an iconostasis, or choir screen, from a monastery near the northwestern Greek town of Ioannina, police said yesterday. The screen, measuring 4 meters by 50 centimeters, bore paintings dating to the early 17th century, according to the manager of the monastery, which is uninhabited.

LAST CHRISTODOULOS WILL

2008-02-13T10:56:51Z

The late Archbishop Christodoulos has left the majority of his personal belongings to the Church of Greece, according to his will, which was made public yesterday. Christodoulos, who died last month, asked for most of his personal effects to be put on display at a Church museum which is currently under construction. The remaining items are to go to close aides of the late archbishop. The will appears to have been handwritten by Christodoulos on May 15 of last year, a few weeks before he was admitted to the hospital.

Bishop Amvrosios of Kalavryta and Aigialeia hands newly elected head of the Greek Orthodox Church

2008-02-10T11:38:39Z

Bishop Amvrosios of Kalavryta and Aigialeia (r) hands newly elected Archbishop Ieronymos the will of the late Archbishop Christodoulos at the official archbishopric residence in Plaka yesterday. Ieronymos said he was very moved to have received his predecessor's will. The document must be submitted to a court before it can be opened. Its contents are expected to be made public in April. The appointment of Archbishop Ieronymos is to be confirmed on Tuesday in the presence of President Karolos Papoulias and he is due to be officially installed next Saturday.