On Saturday 25th July, Sebastian Brock and Elie Zinati LMO delivered the third St Ephrem Lecture in the Newman Chapel at Ealing Abbey, on Syriac women saints. Sebastian Brock is Emeritus Reader in Syriac Studies at Oxford University and is one of the world’s leading authorities on Syriac literature. He has published extensively on Syriac religious texts. Elie Zinati is a monk in the Lebanese Maronite Order and a lecturer at the Liturgical Institute, a part of the Benedictine Institute of Ealing Abbey. The St Ephrem lecture is an annual lecture given in the field of Syriac studies.
Abbot Dominic opened the lecture by introducing the speakers. Br Elie then spoke about four women from early Lebanon. He spoke of St Aquilina of Biblos and St Christina of Tyre, who were both martyred while still children. (St Christina was killed by her own father.) Elie then talked about St Barbara and St Marina. St Barbara is another saint who was killed by her own father. St Marina took the name Marinos so that she could enter a men’s monastery. Someone accused of fathering a child in the village, so the monastery expelled her. The truth was only discovered after she died.
Sebastian Brock then spoke about a number of other Syriac women saints. He started with the mother of the seven sons mentioned in 2 Maccabees 7. Although she is not named in the Book of the Maccabees, Syriac tradition has given her the name Shmuni. St Ephrem was one of many Syriac authors to write poems about her. Sebastian mentioned a number of Persian martyrs. Persia at that time mainly followed the Zoroastrian religion, in which marriage was seen as especially important. Consequently, women who consecrated themselves to a life of virginity were seen as an affront to social values and so were persecuted.
St Ephrem himself wrote many poems dealing with women mentioned in the Old Testament, so the early Syriac women saints were an appropriate topic for the St Ephrem Lecture. Women have been the lifeblood of the Church from the earliest times, yet they are often overlooked.
