The Complete Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 2

...granted; for it must be confessed, and indeed proclaimed by this public testimony, that such a great task could only have been carried out at some point under his very auspices and leadership. Truly, this finest patron original: "Mecœnas," a reference to Gaius Maecenas, the legendary Roman patron of the arts, here used to describe the Pope or a high-ranking supporter of the work. of letters, not content with promoting Greek learning, also vigorously and magnificently cares for the advancement of Syriac literature. Furthermore, he ensures that His Church still preserves the knowledge of those languages which He imparted to it at its birth—especially those in which He deigned to communicate His mysteries to us: Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldean At the time of this publication, "Chaldean" was often used as a general term for Aramaic dialects, including the Syriac language used by Saint Ephrem., of which the vernacular is the Syriac of Saint Ephrem. As for my own part, I have diligently compared the translation with the original text, and I found absolutely nothing that was not expressed with the highest fidelity and equal elegance. I marveled that two languages, though they differ so greatly in the sound of their words and are so diverse in their sentence structure and composition, could agree and harmonize so beautifully and fittingly. Given at Rome, February 17, 1740.