St. Ephrem the Syrian, Prayers, Translated from the Classical Armenian to English by Dr. Edward G Mathews, Jr. (softcover)

“PRAYERS”
(St. Ephrem the Syrian,
translated by Edward G. Mathews)

Ephrem the Syrian (fourth century), one of the giants of the early Church, left a trove of works. Among them, some of them only exist in their Armenian translation. There is also a little collection of prayers attributed to Ephrem that exists in numerous manuscripts and has been printed in several editions, showing its popularity. It has been the exclusive treasure of the Armenian Church for centuries and this small book constitutes the first translation into English.

These prayers are filled with a very deep spirituality and are very biblically based—almost every line evokes an event or a line from the Bible. It is not stretching the truth to say that the ascetical nature of these prayers shares more than a little in common with the even more famous prayers of St. Gregory of Narek.