![]() He is most famous for his sermons in verse, only about half of which survive today. Born in 451, apparently of Catholic parents, he became a priest and eventually Bishop of Batnan. Less information is available about James of Sarug (sometimes spelled “Sarugh”). He founded the Christian Persian School, and the Church celebrates his feast day on July 9th. Ephrem wrote numerous works, including commentaries on all of Holy Scripture, and his love for Our Lady is manifest in all his writings. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Compunction of the heart is the sister of sincere humility and patience.” St. Writing about Ephrem’s gift of tears, St. Ephrem was of a naturally choleric temperament, but with God’s grace he so mastered it that he became famous for his meekness, as well as for his humility and purity. #Crusaders of the lost idols best formation for thanksgiving manual#During that time, as his manual labor, he made sails for ships. ![]() Ephrem went with them, sojourning in the towns of Beit, Garbaya, Amid, and finally Edessa, where he spent the last ten years of his life as a hermit. Maronite Monks, like all Monks, spend their time in work and prayer.Īmidst persecution, many Christians constantly were having to move from place to place. Young Maronite monks recite the Divine Office while an older monk attends to spiritual reading. ![]() This he did vigorously, against the heretical sects arising at the time. Basil the Great, another Doctor of the Church (+379), ordained him a deacon, 4 and as such he could preach. 300), Ephrem converted to the Faith and was baptized when eighteen years old, after having been instructed by St. His mother having consecrated him to God in his infancy (c. He is also called “Sun of the Syrians” and “Column of the Church.” Little is known about his family or childhood, spent in Nisibis along the river Tigris in Mesopotamia, other than that his father was a pagan priest. Ephrem is honored as “Harp of the Holy Ghost” for his beautiful doctrinal writings, primarily sermons and exhortations in verse. Ephrem: “Thou, my Jesus, and Thy Mother, are the only Ones who are beautiful in all aspects, because in Thee, O Lord, there is no deformation, and in Thy Mother there is no stain.” 3 It is evident that no other Church, neither Greek nor Latin, has expressed the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception more clearly and explicitly than the Syrian Antiochian Church.” 2 Here, for instance, is one passage from St. Ephrem has written more abundantly regarding the Blessed Mary. “No matter in what century the Fathers of the Church lived, among his predecessors or contemporaries, St. In a language distinct from both Greek and Latin, this tradition presents a new study of the apostolicity of the Church and a confirmation of her universality.Īn example is the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. 373), and of James of Sarug, Bishop of Batnan (+521), has been introduced to the Western world. Ephrem the Syrian, Doctor of the Church (d. ![]() Due primarily to the work of members of the Assemani family (who will be discussed later), the Syriac tradition, based mainly on the writings of St. In the last 200 years, another source of tradition has come to be recognized more than ever before. 1 This is the “Tradition” which Catholics put on an equal footing with Scripture. It is universally admitted that if a doctrine is defended by both the Western (Latin) Fathers of the Church - e.g., St. Though the largest of the Eastern rites is the Byzantine, the aim of this article is to introduce our readers to the one closest to our Latin Rite, that of the Maronites, along with a brief overview of its history, liturgy, saints, and customs. Until only recently, there has been a palpable prejudice among American Catholics against anything Eastern, because it is an unfamiliar spiritual realm. Yet relatively few even know what a Melkite or a Malankar Catholic is, much less are they able to explain the differences in their customs. The unifying factor among all Catholics, no matter what their particular rite, is the oneness in the Faith, the Sacraments, and the leadership of a single, visible head on earth, the Pope.Īs a result of the false ecumenism pervading the Church today, many Roman Rite Catholics could expound on how “close” our Holy Religion is to that of the Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Lutherans, etc. The language used, the style of art, and the variations in non-essential prayers of the Mass give us many ancient rites - or liturgies - in the Church. As the Apostles went forth to preach the Gospel to all nations, each land they united to the Church built up its own customs and exterior practices surrounding the fundamentals of the Faith. ![]()
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