Ephraim of Antioch

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Ephraim of Antioch or of Amida (Greek: Εφραίμ ο Αντιοχείας, died 545) was Patriarch of Antioch and a Church Father. He was one of the defenders of the Faith of the Council of Chalcedon (451) against the Monophysites. He is an Orthodox saint.


Born at Amida in Mesopotamia, he was Count of the East (comes Orientis) under Justin I. In 527 he succeeded Euphrasius as Patriarch of Antioch.


Most of his many works are lost. We know the titles of them, however, from Anastasius Sinaita (c. 700), John Damascene (d. about 754) or whoever was the author of the Sacra Parallela, and especially Photius (d. 891). Anastasius[1] quotes passages from a work of Ephraim against Severus, the Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch (512-519). The Sacra Parallela give a short passage from St. Ephraim, Archbishop of Antioch, taken from a work On John the Grammarian and the Synod.[2]


Cardinal Mai was able to add a few more from a manuscript Catena in the Vatican library.[4] Krumbacher[5] mentions a few other fragments in the Paris library, etc., and considers that Ephraim would deserve the same reputation as Leontius Byzantinus if more of his work had been preserved. He had extensive knowledge of Greek Fathers, and follows chiefly Cyril of Alexandria in his Christology.


  1. ^ Patrologia Graeca., LXXXXIX, 1185-1188.
  2. ^ Tit. lxi, cf. P.G., LXXXVI, 2, 2104-2109.
  3. ^ P.G., CIII, 957-1024.
  4. ^ P.G., LXXXVI, loc. cit.
  5. ^ Byz. Litt., loc. cit.
  • Krumbacher, Byzantinische Litteratur (Munich, 1897), 57;
  • Bardenhewer, Patrology, tr. Shahan (St. Louis, 1908), 551.


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Orthodox Church titles
Preceded by
Patriarch of Antioch
Succeeded by
Domnus III