Hymns and Sermons of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 1

approached the codices of the National Library. I was received most kindly by the learned men to whom the care of this most rich Library is committed, and, enjoying the very welcome hospitality of the religious of the Sacred Hearts, I devoted myself for an entire month to transcribing Ephrem’s sermons on the passion. In 1879, I went to London once and again to visit the British codices, which journey was repeated in the two following years. Therefore, living in that most ample city for entire months, with the great benevolence of those in charge of that institution, I handled the richest treasures of the British Museum and the most ancient Syriac codices brought there from the desert of Nitria with my own hands, and I transcribed those which suited my purpose with as much care as I could. Having obtained the opportunity, I return deserved thanks with a grateful mind to all these men who fostered my labors, just as to the noble and illustrious men, the ministers of the most august King of Belgium in the administration of the kingdom, who favored my literary travels with a grant and by their offices ensured that three codices of Ephrem were sent to me at Leuven from the Parisian and Bodleian Libraries and entrusted to my care for some time, for which benefit I offer deserved thanks from my heart to the prefects of both Libraries.

Method of the edition.

Concerning the method and order with which we have adorned the edition, we have a few things to say. When we set our hand to the work, the intention was and still is to bring to light all the works of Ephrem, whether already printed or still lying hidden in Syriac codices; but friends urged that I should send to the press without delay what had been collected, lest perhaps the same thing happen to me that happened to others, and specifically to Father Benedict, who, snatched away by death, could not bring the edition of Ephrem begun by him to an end. Yielding to these wishes, and having found a most skilled printer, Dessain of Mechelen, who immediately bought Syriac type at his own expense to forge the work, I decided to submit two volumes successively to the press, to which a third will perhaps be added if the still-hidden commentaries, sermons, and hymns of the deacon of Edessa are ever to be found. The first volume begins with the hymns on the Epiphany, because at the time when the first pages were sent to the press, I did not suspect that eight genuine hymns of Saint Ephrem on the nativity of Christ were lying hidden in the British codices, and much less that there would be found there commentaries of Saint Ephrem, omitted by the Roman editors, on the second part of Isaiah and on the minor prophets Jonah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Haggai, which I described after they were found and am about to publish in the second volume. Hence it is understood how it happened that the hymns of the holy Doctor are not joined in one volume and the sermons in another.