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.
Vote!
[poll id="79"]
199 comments on “Alcuin vs. Ephrem of Edessa”
Charlemagne was a tough employer with steep consequences for marginal contributions so the question mark, the Trivium, Quadrivium and as Peg
noted, the blueprint for Kinko's all suggest a truly motivated and quintessential church man worthy of any vestry. One has to vote Alcuin to advance to the 2nd round. Note: the mediocre poem came late in his career when Charlie started to mello,
Alcuin helped to abolish forced baptism -- slam dunk!! That and his contributions to education make Alcuin the easy choice. Thanks to saints like him, we know what "trivium" and "quadrivium" mean without looking them up in the dictionary; so why did we need a definition of "scriptoria" in parentheses? The additional achievement of proofreading and standardizing the Vulgate should also give Alcuin bonus points.
Is a "slam dunk" the same thing as a forced baptism?
; )
As a lifelong choir member, I feel my connection to God most through music. But when I read that Alcuin's influence made Charlemagne stop requiring baptism under pain of death, I had to vote for him! Tough choice though (as usual).
As a deacon of 24 years, hard choices have become the norm, beginning with "Why do you need the collar?" and "Now, when will you become a real priest?", both to be answered with a smile, gritted teeth, and LOVE. So, thanks, Penny Nash, for the hard choice today, and now, for you, when will you make Madeleine happy and get the SEC to make Fred Rogers one of the 32? Suz Cate, where ya been? Penny, also thanks for the reminder of 96 TEARS and the Mysterians..I vaguely remember them... I think...Hmmm ?????
I'm telling ya, I have absolutely no influence over the SEC. Just ask them!
Alcuin spoke to me. He gets my vote.
As a college professor who sings in the choir, I found this a terribly difficult choice...but ultimately cast my vote for a man who educated using music. Harp of the spirit, indeed!
Oh, my! Two saintly deacons previously unknown to me... embodying my two passions, education and music - I spent the entire morning agonizing before finally choosing Alcuin. In truth, it was the bracketing of music with the sciences, as that frequently comes into conversations with my students, who are studying to become engineers. Today has also reaffirmed my decision to not read the comments until after I cast my vote. It surely would have had me dithering into the wee hours, had I not done it that way. And, yes, I am very much surprised at how lop-sided to voting is, along with being bemused at having chosen the leader for once!
Ephrem was tempting, but what finally swayed me to Alcuin was that he was able to persuade Charlemagne to stop executing those who refused baptism. And then, of course, that he developed and instituted an incredible educational curriculum (I liked that music and astronomy were paired with geometry), ensured that ancient texts were preserved and amassed an incredible library. Way to go, Alcuin!
Wow. Way to display the institutionalized systemic hold of Anglican eurocentrism, 78-22 in favour of the white guy over the swarthy Mesopotamian... 🙂
Having been ordained as a deacon on Ephrem's Day (June 10) I feel something of an obligation to support him. and teaching through singing ... well, you can't beat that!
Wow - two overworked deacons in the fray. This overworked deacon went with Alcuin of York.
I'm still marveling at the fact that someone, in their comment, recommended a book on the history of punctuation. How great is that?!?!?! I love it!
Ditto
The educator in me was beginning to root for Alcuin, but I'm a historian of the 4th century, so I had to go with Ephrem. His hymns are beautiful, and his influence on the church remarkable. Also, Syriac Christianity and its complexity and rich history deserves more attention. Go, Ephrem!
I was impressed to learn of Alcuin's contributions, but this was a slam-dunk for me. Ephrem was a musician, a poet, delighted in and poetically praised the paradoxes of the faith, had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit, and was one of the great voices of the Syriac church, which worshiped and theologized in a cognate language to the Aramaic Jesus spoke and was in its day as influential a church as the Greek Eastern and the Latin Western traditions.
St Ephrem, pray for us!
I always like the Northumbrian saints!
I can't believe I read all the comments AFTER I had already voted for Alcuin - and yes, it was a hard choice.
My vote will have to go to Alcuin. Since 2 of my children are graduates of Literature. I myself am not a grammarian. Never the less I'm constantly corrected, I mean reminded of how important it all is. (LOL)
Alcuin (and his forebear Bede) have been very early entries in my list of favored saints, and while I came to know of Ephrem not too long after he did not come that high on my personal list. So, I started with Alcuin and after reading all these comments Ephrem has certainly risen for me, but the breadth of his accomplishments still wins my vote for the proto-Anglican Alcuin.
Without giving away for whom I cast my ballot, the impact Alcuin had on higher education lasted well into the 19th Century. The trivium and quadrivium remained the standard collegiate curriculum until Mr. Jefferson established the University of Virginia (otherwise known as that experimental university over in Charlottesville) in 1826. It took the rest of the century for an elective approach to emerge in American and European universities. I'd say 1100 years is a pretty good run.
Anyone who, by moral influence alone, can convince an emperor to change a law has my vote! Go Alcuin!
When I filled out my bracket for our church competition, I chose Efrem based on my research. Didn't have the handbook to guide me. I regret that now, but feel bound to follow my bracket choices.
I want to know how to nominate a saint for the brackets. Obviously it is too late for this year. My enthusiastic vote is for Jonathan Myrick Daniels, martyr. His feast day is one I always honor.
Jonathan Daniels was in last year's Lent Madness
Believe it or not today's competition brings me back several decades ago to second grade when my teacher was Sister Mary Alcuin. I can't help wonder why she chose his name to be hers....
Question mark inventor....gets my vote!
Voting for Ephrem. Of all the attibutes of these two wonderful saints, I chose the hymn writer. From the 1982 Hymnal #442, I found only one Ephrem hymn, though I thought there were others.
I chose the hymn writer since both my husband & I sing in the choir.
Tenuous logic, perhaps. Since both Ephrem & Alcuin are HUGE saints, I searched for a small thread to connect with one of them. Madness, of course, since each left a giant tapistry for suceeding generations!
Correction, 443.
voting Alcuin all the way. Gotta love the Collect for Purity author...and the inventor of the ?question mark?
This was a hard one. I wanted to go with Alcuin for my sister and all my friends and parishioners that are teachers and educators. Add to that his work for worship reform...BUT, Ephrem was also a teacher and educator AND he appears to have been a bit of an artist. Certainly had the strand of creativity running through him. Once I saw he was the underdog at only 22% of the voting, I knew I had to go with Ephrem. Almost always have to root for the underdog.
I'll support a poet any day. Especially one called, 'The Harp of the Spirit.'
As a lay person who loves lifelong learning and music, I got to vote for Acuin!
"Thankfully lost"? Of course Ephrem's biographer's comment is meant to be light-hearted, but what a treasure it would be if there really had been dances and someone still knew who they were done! Rejoicing at a loss is seldom a good idea . . . .