Saints who resisted heresy
St Ephraim the Syrian
Fought Arians, Bardaisanites and Manichaeans in hymns, “woe to those who defile the holy faith with heresies.”
- Period
- †373
- Witness
- Deacon and hymnographer
- Controversy
- Arianism and the Trinity
Witness under persecution
What this saint faced
Fought Arians, Bardaisanites and Manichaeans in hymns, “woe to those who defile the holy faith with heresies.”
Exile, imprisonment or torture
The historical summary above may mention punishments reported in a saint's Life. A fully cross-checked chronology of exile, imprisonment and physical suffering has not yet been completed for this individual. The absence of a detailed dossier is not evidence that the saint suffered none.
Not established from the sources reviewed for this entry. No numerical duration has been invented.
Words and testimony of the Holy Fathers
Only words with an identifiable attribution are displayed. Reported speech in a Life is not the same as a passage written by the saint.
Greek testimony · printed p. 681
Τούτους οὖν οὐ χρὴ ἀγαπᾶν, οὐδὲ συνδυάζειν, οὐδὲ συνεύχεσθαι, οὐδὲ συνεσθίειν.Editorial translation: One ought therefore not to love them, associate with them, pray with them or eat with them.
This severe passage is transmitted in a Greek Ephraim collection; individual authorship has not been independently authenticated. Read the polemical context; do not infer that the saint rejected the Christian obligation to love other people.