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Ephrem (or Ephraim)

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Ephrem, Patriarch of Armenia

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Ephrem (or Ephraim)

patriarch OF ANTIOCH, a Greek theologian, was born in the second part of the 5th century. If the epithet of Amidian (ὀ Αμίδιος ), which Theophanes gives him, indicates the place of his birth, he was born at Amida, in Armenia, near the source of the Tigris. He first had civil employments, and under the reign of Justin I obtained the high dignity of a count of the Orient. In the years 525 and 526 Antioch was almost wholly destroyed by earthquakes, and by fires, which were the consequences of them. The inhabitants, who were touched by the compassion which Ephrem showed for their disasters, and by the help which he extended to them, appointed him successor to the patriarch Euphrasius, who was buried under the ruins of the city. All the writers on Church history praise his conduct as a patriarch, his charity towards the poor, the zeal and vigor with which he opposed heretics. Not satisfied with condemning, in a synod at Antioch, those who tried to revive the errors of Origen, he also wrote divers treatises against the Nestorians, the Eutychians, the Severians, the Acephali, and in favor of the Council of Chalcedon. Towards the end of his life he was forced by the emperor Justinian to subscribe to the condemnation of three of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, which he had there so warmly defended. Ephrem died A.D. 545. His works are known to us only by their analysis, which Photius has given in his Bibliotheca; they made together three volumes, which were consecrated to the defense of the dogmas of the Church, and particularly of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. The first volume contained a letter to Zenobius, advocate of Emessa, and member of the sect of the Acephali; letters to the emperor Justinian; to Anthimnus, bishop of Trapezus; to Dometianus Syncleticus, metropolitan of Tarsus; to Brazes the Persian, and to others. The acts of a synod (συνοδιχὴ ) were kept by Ephrem, on the subject of certain' heterodox books, panegyrics, and other discourses. The second volume contained a treatise in four books, in defense of Cyril of Alexandria, and of the Synod of Chalcedon, against the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and responses on the theological subjects to the advocate Anatolius. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.; Smith, Dict. of Christ. Biog. s.v.