Saint Ephraem, celebrated on June 9th, was a deacon and a doctor of the Church, who first exercised the office of preaching and of handing on sacred doctrine. He fulfilled his office through discourses and writings and in austerity of life, and so singular was he in doctrine that the exquisite hymns he composed merited for him the title “harp of the Holy Spirit.”
The above description is paraphrased from the one on the Bishop’s website. All his compositions were written in verse form. A few minutes on the web yielded the following stanza from an unpublished translation of his work, tantalizingly entitled TSF45.
How the eye detests that which makes it itch!
Curiosity irritates the mind,
as a crumb the eye, spoiling everything
and perverting thought, always.
Poking fingers hurt eyes and help them not.
Probing thinkers, too, harm their powers of thought.
Is St. Ephraem an old fuddy-duddy afraid of the new or does he have a point?
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