SAINT APHRAATES OF ANTIOCH

St. Aphraates
Aphraates of Antioch,
Feastday: April 7
Born in Syria;
Death: 345


 Saint Aphraates was born into an illustrious pagan family on Syria's border with Persia (Iran). After his conversion to Christianity, he gave up all worldly possessions and became a hermit at Edessa in Mesopotamia, where he lived in severe austerity. He then moved to a hermitage next to a monastery in Antioch, Syria, and attracted numerous visitors with his reputation for holiness and as a miracle-worker.

He publicly and valiantly opposed Arians, who attempted to exile him, but Emperor Valens refused to allow it because he thought the death of his attendants who had threatened to murder Aphraates was retribution for his threat.

Some scholars considered Aphraates identical with the bishop of the monastery of Mar Mattai near Mosul, Mesopotamia, and the author of Demonstrations, 23 treatises written between 336 and 345 (the oldest document of the Church in Syria), which give a survey of the Christian faith. This Aphraates may have suffered persecution at the hands of King Shapur the Great and was known as 'the Persian sage'