From general to patriarch
Before his episcopacy Ephraim pursued a distinguished secular career in the service of the Eastern Roman state. Sources record him as a Syrian, born at Amida (modern Diyarbakir) in Mesopotamia, who served under the emperors Anastasius I and Justin I and rose to the rank of Count of the East, the senior official responsible for the eastern frontier provinces. The synaxarion remembers him as a man marked by virtue, piety, and compassion for the poor.
His turn to the Church followed the 526 earthquake. Entrusted by the emperor with restoring Antioch, he won the confidence of clergy and people, and upon the death of Patriarch Euphrasius in the disaster he was raised to the patriarchal throne in 527. The tradition relates that a bishop encountered during the rebuilding foretold his election and urged him to persevere in charity and in the defense of the faith.
Defense of Chalcedon
As patriarch, Ephraim was a determined upholder of the Council of Chalcedon and its definition that the divine and human natures are united without confusion in the one Person of Christ. He followed the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria and acted against the non-Chalcedonian (Monophysite) party then strong in Syria, convening synods that condemned Severus of Antioch and the teaching of Eutyches.
Though he was a prolific theological writer, the great majority of his works have been lost, surviving only as passages quoted by later authors. His memory in the Church centers on his role as a vigorous shepherd who labored to keep his flock within the bounds of the Chalcedonian confession.
Traditional Accounts
The synaxarion preserves an account of Ephraim's encounter, near Herakleia, with a stylite who held to heretical opinions. Challenged to demonstrate the truth of his faith, the patriarch prayed to Christ and placed his omophorion in a bonfire. After three hours the wood was wholly consumed, yet the omophorion was drawn out unharmed, and by this sign the stylite was returned to Orthodoxy.
