In the first and only Saturday match-up of Lent Madness, we get Dueling Deacons! Alcuin of York vs. Ephrem of Edessa. With the emphasis on diaconal service we can only imagine these two standing around saying "After you." "No, after you." Nonetheless, you must decide which of these holy men will move on and which will be left to wallow in the lavabo bowl of defeat.
Yesterday Julia Chester Emery trounced Charles Henry Brent 73% to 27% in the Six-Name Showdown and will go on to face the winner of David of Wales vs. F.D Maurice. Speaking of the bracket, you may not know this but Lent Madness Bracket Czar, Adam Thomas, updates the bracket after each victory. Be sure to click the link, print it out, and/or post it on your living room wall and adore it for 24 hours before tearing it down and putting up the new one. [Please note: The Supreme Executive Committee does not generally condone the killing of trees].
You'll also notice that underneath the bracket but above the match-up calendar, Adam posts the results and a link to each completed battle. This will come in especially handy in subsequent rounds as saints advance and you want a quick biographical refresher before casting your next vote.
After today's vote is concluded, the next pairing will be posted on Monday morning as Joseph of Arimathea faces Anna Cooper. Even with a single day off, you may experience a phenomenon known as LMW (Lent Madness Withdrawal). Please stay calm; help is on the way. The "good news" is that we lose an hour of sleep this weekend so Lent Madness will return even sooner than anticipated!
Alcuin
Alcuin of York (735 - 804), deacon and later Abbot of Tours, was a Renaissance man. The Carolingian Renaissance of learning in eighth-century Europe was greatly influenced by him.
Born in Northumbria (England) and educated by a disciple of the Venerable Bede at the cathedral school at York, he became master there, expanding the school into an international center of learning, complete with a fantastic classical library. Charlemagne invited Alcuin to join his Frankish court in 781 and put him in charge of implementing widespread, radical educational reform. Schooling for everyone came under the purview of the church, and Alcuin created a liberal arts curriculum consisting of the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) primarily to educate clergy, who were then required to establish free schools in their parishes. Alcuin wrote many textbooks for these schools, including a math book of river-crossing problems. Charlemagne, his wife, and sons were among Alcuin’s students.
Alcuin also established scriptoria (places for writing) throughout the empire to copy ancient manuscripts using Carolingian miniscule, a new kind of cursive writing that facilitated faster copying and standardization of letters. He may have developed new punctuation symbols too, including the previously unknown question mark. Given more time, he might have invented the emoticon. Using his techniques, much of ancient Roman literature and Greek mathematical works were thus preserved in a world threatened with destruction from repeated “barbarian” invasions. His significant moral influence over Charlemagne inspired the emperor to eventually abolish his law requiring everyone to be baptized or face execution, reasoning that forcing people into baptism wouldn’t make them Christians.
Alcuin was also a liturgical reformer, revising the lectionary and adapting the Gregorian (Roman/Italian) Sacramentary to include and preserve Gelasian (French/German) liturgies and ancient prayers. This effort expanded official liturgical resources to include saints’ feasts, the blessing of the Easter font, and other prayers, including the Collect for Purity still used today. He also standardized the text of the Vulgate (St. Jerome’s Latin Bible), which had accumulated many scribal errors over 400 years of copying. He continued developing plainchant for use in worship and re-introduced singing the Creed.
Among his theological writings is a celebrated treatise against the heresy of Adoptionism, the belief that Jesus was merely human until his baptism. Alcuin’s many extant letters are important historical sources, and his (admittedly mediocre) poems include a poignant and rather graphic lament on the Viking destruction of the holy monastery at Lindisfarne.
Collect for Alcuin
Almighty God, who in a rude and barbarous age raised up your deacon Alcuin to rekindle the light of learning: Illumine our minds, we pray, that amid the uncertainties and confusions of our own time we may show forth your eternal truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Penny Nash
Ephrem of Edessa
Ephrem of Edessa was a deacon, teacher, prolific poet, and defender of orthodoxy in the fourth-century church of Syria.
He was baptized as a young man and joined a covenanted Christian community in Nisibis. This community was a forerunner to monasticism. The community was a small, urban group committed to service and abstinence. At some point following his baptism, Ephrem was ordained deacon and also formally appointed to the office of teacher, which still holds great distinction for Syriac Christians.
Ephrem is thought to have attended the Council of Nicea with his bishop. He is beloved for his defense of orthodox Christianity through his composition of popular songs, a tactic he learned from the Gnostic opposition, which employed it with great success. These teaching hymns, called madrašê in Syriac, were possibly sung by all-women folk choirs and accompanied by the lyre. We do not know if there was liturgical dance to go with these hymns, but if so, the choreography is thankfully lost in the dustbin of history.
Ephrem’s writings were practical theology intended to instruct Christians during a tumultuous time of conflicting doctrine. He skillfully drew on a multitude of influences, including early Rabbinic Judaism, Greek science and philosophy, and the Persian mystical tradition. Ephrem was so admired and his writings considered so authoritative that Christian authors wrote works in his name for centuries after his death. The best known of these works is the Prayer of Saint Ephrem, still recited during fasting periods in Eastern Christianity today.
In 363, the Roman Emperor was forced to surrender his home city of Nisibis to Persia, and the entire Christian population was expelled. Ephrem moved to Edessa, where he lived for ten years. In his sixties, he succumbed to an epidemic as he ministered to its victims.
Ephrem is often called “The Harp of the Spirit.”
Collect for Ephrem of Edessa
Pour out on us, O Lord, that same Spirit by which your deacon Ephrem rejoiced to proclaim in sacred song the mysteries of faith; and so gladden our hearts that we, like him, may be devoted to you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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199 comments on “Alcuin vs. Ephrem of Edessa”
Fr. Tony: thank you for sharing the astonishingly beautiful madrasah!
Could we say that Alcuin's efforts in preserving saints' feasts helped lay the basis for Lent Madness?????
Singing vs. Mathematics? Well, the question mark almost got me, since the asking of questions is such an important part of my life. But so is my harp and my heart when singing. So I vote for Syria, and music, and risking one's life (and losing it) while caring for others.
I think it is very sad that Ephrem's dance moves were lost. We need more dancing to practical theology!
Perhaps several factors are contributing to the "trouncing " today, e.g., Alcuin has longer write up. I wonder also if our greater familiarity with England, Europe, and the western church isn't also a factor.
Oh my gosh; developing curriculum, free schooling AND punctuation marks! I'm impressed.
Not sure Tim has deacons serving with him as he probably wouldn't have put two deacons opposed to each other up front, otherwise. My CPE supervisor once told me that a liberal arts degree was invaluable in ministry, which I agree I have used effectively. However, my vote goes to Ephrem for his "practical theology", teaching songs, and servant ministry to the end.
Why can't there occasionally be an EASY choice! Must we divide between the saintly and the saintly?
I am impressed by the extensive and illuminating write-ups of all the saints we have voted upon so far. Thank you.
Just one tiny concern. The mild putdown of liturgical dance. Yes, I know it is not always in everyone's taste, but for some it is an expressive and creative way to worship. And, no, I don't. At least when anyone is watching.
Agree about liturgical dance. Wish we could use it more often. It has powerfully enriched my worship the few times I have experienced it.
I've only seen liturgical dance once, at the funeral of a man who was a member of a black Baptist church. Extremely powerful!
Here, here! All dance began as liturgical dance, and more's the pity that the church has abandoned that tradition.
Education in the dark ages, the question mark, and, most importantly, would have got to emoticons if only he'd had more time? Sorry, Ephrem, I would have liked to got to know you better, but it's Alcuin all the way. Besides, I was irritated with your celebrity blogger for not giving a hint of the time period you were from until the very end.
Alcuin all the way. The Collect for Purity sends it over the top, but as a member of St. Martin of Tours in Kalamazoo, I have to go with the Abbot of Tours.
(PS - Dear SEC- still can't vote. Did you guys block my IP address? I get an error popup every day that says, "Your last request is still being processed. Please wait a while..." Help!
TOUGH choice! Love them both so much I tried to figure out how I could get my cat to vote, too. He's not cooperating. Went with Alcuin: inventor of the liberal arts! the question mark? and one of the great saints of northern Britain! I venerate them both. Great comments today: thanks to all.
"Hey!" I said to my husband,"one of the guys running today invented the question mark!"
"Ha!" he said, "I thought you did that."
Delighted that our feisty deacons are finally getting fired up about the indignity of pitting two deacons against one another. What took so long? Not that the SEC ever intentionally stirs up controversy, of course...
We actually love deacons and the faithful, often rabble-rousing ministry of the diaconate. We're hoping to add thorn-in-the-side Lent Madness evangelists to their other duties of gospel proclamation. Both Scott and I have indeed served with many amazing deacons over the years. My current deacon, the Ven. Geof Smith, also doubles as one of two archdeacons in the Diocese of Massachusetts. His rousing dismissals are some of the best in the business and, on those occasions when he's not around on a Sunday morning, he makes mind sound rather, um, muted.
So, deacons of the world, unite! Go vote for one of the two deacons today, both of whom were amazing and faithful servants of the living Christ. Then go answer more of those annoying questions about when you'll be "promoted to priest." Ugh. The education continues.
Felt drawn to the "Harp of the Spirit," then captured by the Eucharist madrash, thank you Fr. Tony. A hard choice for me, for my heart resonates for all the educators in my extended family who were clearly influenced by Alcuin's gifts and his ministry.
I must go with Ephrem of Edessa. As a priest/musician the seeds of vocation were planted early in second grade as part of a men and boys choir where I learned the faith in the context of the beauty of the liturgy and the spiritual transformation of fine music. With most popular music devoid of redemptive lyrics Ephrem is a reminder of what music and poetry can be. No one has mentioned that Hymn 443 (Hymnal 1982), gives a fine example of his hymnody set to a modern, singable hymn tune, Salem Harbor, by Ron Arnatt (b. 1930). The text and tune are a fine marriage. Poetry and Song endure.
I really appreciate the image selected for Alcuin. I use this when teaching on Alcuin. The image is from a work that Rabanus Maurus, a disciple of Alcuin and a great theologian in his own right, wrote for Archbishop Otgar of Mainz. On the right is Otgar, on the left is Rabanus Maurus, in the middle is Alcuin. What is touching is that by the time this work was completed, Alcuin was dead. And yet Rabanus depicts himself as relying upon the support of his great teacher. It really speaks to the massive influence of Alcuin and the esteem in which he was held.
Wow, Dan, thanks for schooling us on the image!
You are welcome! It is one of my favorites.
With a song in my my heart I voted for you
Ephram my Deacon dear,
I wish I could vote again and again
Because you will lose I fear
This was a tough choice! But I'm going to go for Alcuin.
VERY tough choice today. Sigh. Have to go with the underdog. I learned soooo much from various hymns and songs. Great teaching aids, and easy to remember. Often I reference a hymn in response to a problem, my own and others.
Pax vobiscum.
Although, I firmly believe math books to be evil in book form, I believe Alcuin had good intentions. Besides that one indiscretion was largely over shadowed by all of his other work. Either way you vote, you are voting for a Deacon, and what could possibly be more important than that?
No one can question (yes, yes, I know) the value of Alcuin's contributions particularly in the Western world (nor that he has an astounding lead), but I understand better now why Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic persons of East and West see Ephrem as a notable saint and/or Doctor of the Church. He was a "practical theologian" during a time of controversy, helping people be better aware of God's presence in their lives. He did so beautifully using numerous pieces of poetry and hymns touching people's hearts as well as minds. When I read some of his work posted here and elsewhere, all I could say is "Wow!" and rest in wonder. Thanks to Lent Madness for lifting him up, even if he proves to go down in the vote. I feel like I've made a new friend, and I want to get to know him better i n the years ahead.
I agree, Lou. I have been so blessed by the posts that point to and quote his work. The Harp of the Spirit has brought music to my heart today. I voted for Alcuin but after all the posts am feeling sad I could not vote for Ephrem , too.
It is hard to vote against Alcuin, great Anglican saint that he is, but my heart belongs to Ephrem. A mystic and poet, he used hymnody to fight heresy. And poetry and song are ever so much more interesting that dry theological debates. Besides, his feast day is my birthday.
I had to vote for Alcuin (question marks?!?!?) even though our music minister has us singing a hymn written by Ephrem of Edessa tomorrow. (She's including a hymn by one of the lent madness saints each week).
OMG, Jeunee, that is so cool that y'all are doing a hymn by a Lent Madness saint each week. Get ready for the publicity storm! Or maybe I should put that in the form of a question?
That's an awesome idea which I will need to steal...Kudos to your music minister.
I looked up Ephrem's hymn referred to in one of the comments. It has beautiful, powerful words. I'm going to commend it to our choir director tomorrow!
So many great comments! But just the mention of Alcuin being from my ancestral home leads me to vote for him. His influence on education seals the deal.
A clue to the origin of much ridiculed story problems in my daughter's math classes: "including a math book of river-crossing problems" -- prompted my interest. Alcuin seems like an amazingly industrious and influential person, I admire his ethics and practical works. Ephram's bio was not nearly so captivating -- thank you for the comments section that provided more insight.
Delving deeper into lent madness ,
I took down the A book from our 1970 set of World Book to check on Alcuin. There he is. .."see Charlesmagne (the Man)". C book. Page 323. There's the Deacon I voted for. Who knew he was known way back in the 70's.
Had to go with Alcuin. Teacher, musician and protector of spiritual choice. And since my dad's family is from Yorkshire, how could I choose otherwise?
What a great match up! I just want to make a point of clarification regarding Alcuin as liturgist. It is generally accepted now that Benedict of Aniane was Charlemagne's chief liturgical reformer, not Alcuin. It was Benedict who put together the synthesized "Roman" sacramentary. Alcuin did, however, compose some votive Masses for his monastery.
I studied these sacramentaries with Boone Porter at General (so that is obviously a while ago, when Alcuin's role was generally accepte) without ever hearing of this Benedict. I have just spent about 2 hours on the web without finding any mention of Benedict of Aniane as Charlemagne's liturgical reformer, though he was certainly the leading monastic reformer of the empire.
Tyler, can you point me to any sources I might have missed -- you have really aroused my curiosity.
An interesting bit of trivia is that a recent biography of Benedict of Aniane on Amazon is shown with a cover illustration of the scene shown in Alcuin's blog of Rabanus, Alcuin, and the Abp. of Mainz
The initial work was done by Deshusses who edited the Gregorian sacramentaries. In English, it is discussed in the revised edition of Vogel's "Medieval Liturgy" and by Frederick Paxton in "Christianizing Death". I'm sure Eric Palazzo ("A History of Liturgical Books") and Yitzhak Hen ("The Royal Patronage of the Liturgy...") must also discuss Benedict. Isn't medieval liturgy fun?!
No need for sadness Millie. I was torn between the 2 and read your post. I realized I could vote for Ephrem for him and for you! Hope that's OK.
Yours in madness and music
Thank you, Ellen. That lifts my spirit:-)
I am reluctant to take one of the wonderful celebrity blogers to task, however, Amber as a liturgical dancer I take offense at "the choreography is thankfully lost in the dustbin of history." I would love to have some of the choreography just as others love the music and liturgy handed down to us. I can only hope that it was a error of omission, however, given the phrasing I doubt it.
go to youtube and type in liturgical dance oh ye who thinks it should be lost in the dustbin of history. Watch the videos and then come back with a new opinion of liturgical dance.
OK, SEC, here's the controversy for today. I side with the liturgical dancers, although I'm sure the remark in the bio wasn't intended to be mean-spirited.