By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas
Saint Ephraim lived in the 6th century AD. He came from the city of Amida, which is located near the Tigris River. He was count of Antioch, in the years of Emperor Justin of Thrace. For his education, and above all for his virtue, he was elected Patriarch of Antioch, and he fought, as Saint Photios the Patriarch of Constantinople says in his work "Myriobiblos", with all his might against the heresy of Monophysitism. With his fiery sermons and his powerful written word, as well as with the miracles he performed with the power of the Triune God, he managed to convert many Monophysites to the Orthodox faith. Among them was an austere monk, who was sitting on a pillar. Therefore, he visited the Stylite monk with the aim of helping him to renounce the heresy and confess the Orthodox faith, so that he would not lose the labors of his strict and long-term asceticism.
