St. Ephrem’s Lament
Joseph Amar is professor emeritus of Syriac, Arabic, and Eastern Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. He is currently at work on a biography of Ephrem the Syrian. He is a priest in the Syriac Maronite Church.
Syriac Christianity is an important and much neglected part of the history of Christianity. When I went to ND during the summers, I was hoping Amar would offer a course in the theology department. But he was preoccupied with graduate students giving them the tools they needed to study the original texts.
I look forward to his book on Ephrem.
I think this is the same St. Ephrem who is considered one of the patron saints of deacons. His feast is on June 9, I don't know if that is when the Eastern church celebrates it. He was a prolific writer of hymns, poetry, and sermons. Was called the "Harp of the Holy Spirit"
ReplyDeleteAll I knew about Ephrem is the six pages he got in the Ignatius Press assembly of Pope Benedict's 2007 general audiences. I marked it up and did want to look for more. Benedict treated him as a theologian (and deacon) and didn't mention any of the fascinating history in Amar's article.
ReplyDeleteThe article never draws out the comparison of history first as tragedy and then at farce. But one Ephrem quote makes it unmistakable: “Is this the prideful blowhard who forgot that he was dust?”
It does need to be added that the second prideful blowhard seems to be aware that the bug out he ordered wasn't complete because he still has troops protecting Syria's oil from, um, whom?