---"Internal evidence from Ephrem's hymnody suggests that both his parents were part of the growing Christian community in the city, although later hagiographers wrote that his father was a pagan priest.
He began to compose hymns and write biblical commentaries...337, Emperor Constantine I, who had legalised and promoted the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire, died. Seizing on this opportunity, Shapur II of Persia began a series of attacks into Roman North Mesopotamia. Nisibis was besieged in 338, 346 and 350...Shapur rerouted the River Mygdonius to undermine the walls of Nisibis. The Nisibenes quickly repaired the walls while the Persian elephant cavalry became bogged down in the wet ground. Ephrem celebrated what he saw as the miraculous salvation of the city in a hymn that portrayed Nisibis as being like Noah's Ark, floating to safety on the flood....After a ten-year residency in Edessa, in his sixties, Ephrem succumbed to the plague as he ministered to its victims. The most reliable date for his death is 9 June 373." Wikipedia---
" From my childhood I have been a vessel unprofitable and dishonourable.
Warning others,
I have fallen myself into their evils twofold.
Wo is me !
—whence Can there be any refuge, unless the mercies of God shine quickly upon me. Nor is there any hope of salvation from works :
*While I speak of purity,
I am thinking of uncleanness:
*While I am uttering rules for the conquest of the passions,
my own are inwardly raging night and day.
*What excuse can I make?
Alas ! what a scrutiny must I undergo!
I have had the form without the power of godliness."
Ephrem's Works.
Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.
*Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
*For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me.
*Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psalm 51:1-3,10,11
