St Ephrem’s hymn on the death of children

A hymn for the burial of children, credited by tradition to St Ephrem the Syrian. Each verse ends with a one-line prayer, most of them for the grieving mother and father.

Picture: Fritz von Uhde, Let the Little Children Come to Me, 1884

Plain English

How bitter is the griefwhen a child dies!How painful is the partingof a mother and her baby!Lord, bring up the little one in Your dwelling!

This day brings griefto parents who lose their children,and death now breaksthe staff of their old age.Lord, may they lean on You!

This day takes awaya mother’s only childand cuts off the armthat would have held her up.Lord, may she trust in You!

This day partsa mother from her little oneand leaves her in a wildernessof suffering and grief.Lord, comfort her!

This day separatesthe nursing baby from the breast,and the mother weeps and grievesbecause she can be with her child no more.May she see her child in the Kingdom!

How blessed is the little onewho has gained Paradise!How sad for the old,who are still left in sorrow!Lord, be their helper!

Traditional wording, 1853

How bitter is the griefFor the death of childhood;How grievous the separationOf the infant from its mother:—Train it up (Lord) in Thy dwelling!

This day afflictsThe fathers through their sons;And death now breaksThe staff of their old age:—Lord! may they lean on Thee!

This day removesThe only child from its mother,And cuts off the armWhich would have been her stay:—In Thee, Lord, may she trust!

This day separatesThe little one from its parent,And leaves her in the wildernessOf suffering and grief:—Do Thou, Lord, comfort her!

This day dividesThe sucking-child from the breast;And (the mother) wails and grievesBecause her intercourse with it hath perished:—May she see it in the Kingdom!

O happy infancyWhich hath gained Paradise!Alas! for old age,Which still remains in sorrow!Lord, be Thou its helper!

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from Henry Burgess’s 1853 English of the Syriac, checked line by line against the Russian translation of St Ephrem’s works. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Henry Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus, 1853.

The plain wording follows the Russian translation in saying “parents” and “children” for Burgess’s “the fathers through their sons”, and “mother” for his “its parent”.

When it is said

It was written to be sung whenever a baby or a young child was buried, not for one family’s loss.

The last line of each verse was sung in answer, by the whole choir or by one part of it.

A mother or father might pray it at home or at the grave and make each closing line their own prayer.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

Who was St Ephrem?

St Ephrem served as a deacon in Nisibis and later lived in Edessa, where he died in AD 373. He wrote his hymns in Syriac, and they were loved so widely that for centuries other writers put their own work under his name. Tradition credits this hymn to him, though no one can be sure it is his.

“Ephrem the Syrian”, Wikipedia

One of 85 funeral hymns

The hymn is one of 85 funeral hymns in Syriac that the Roman edition of St Ephrem’s works printed in the 1700s. The Syriac churches had hymns like these for the burial of everyone, young and old. The Anglican priest Henry Burgess translated this one in 1853 under the title “On the Death of Children”.

Henry Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus (1853), pp. lxxi and 6; John Gwynn, introduction to St Ephrem, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 13 (1898)

What the words mean

An only child, or a beloved one?

The third verse speaks of a mother’s “only child”. Burgess first translated the Syriac word as “the beloved one”, and he still thought that was better after he changed it at a friend’s suggestion. He reasoned that a hymn for every child’s burial would hardly speak of something as rare as the death of an only child.

Henry Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus (1853), p. 8, note c

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