The Hidden Pearl Institute

For more information, visit https://thehiddenpearl.press/maronite-enrichment-days/

Introducción a la Espiritualidad Siríaca

Get your copy of Alberto Meouchi-Olivares’s Spanish translation of Introduction of Syriac Spirituality composed by Seely Beggiani and published by The Hidden Pearl Press. For more information, please visit https://thehiddenpearl.press/product/introduccion-a-la-espiritualidad-siriaca/

Due to unfortunate circumstances, The Père Paul Symposium will begin 30 min late (September 19, at 2:30 pm).

The 2025 Père Paul Symposium will take place at the Catholic University of America on Friday, September 19, 2025. The recipient of the 2025 Père Paul Scholarship for Eastern Christian Studies will also be announced. Stay tuned for more information.

Joe Amar just led the 2025 Maronite Enrichment Days at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Seminary in Washington DC.

Joseph Phillip Amar is a linguist and historian specializing in the languages and cultures of the Middle East. His main areas of focus are on literary interactions among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and on Arabic and Syriac literary history. His publications appear in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Patrologia Orientalis, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, Orientalia Christiana Analecta, Le Muséon, Studia Patristica, The Journal of Early Christian Studies, and Parole de L’Orient. He is a regular contributor to America Magazine, Commonweal, and Religion Dispatches, where he writes on the intersection of religion and politics.

Dr. Amar is professor emeritus of Semitic Languages and Early Christian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he founded the Program in Semitic Languages and Literatures and co-founded the Program in Early Christian Studies. His contributions to Maronite Enrichment Days are drawn from his forthcoming book, “Dangerous Poet. The Life and Troubled Times of Ephrem the Syrian.”

Here is a the link to the playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHobUObRWoKKSZ2iUEwEpKbfusVnTloaE

The Stories We Tell
We do terrible things to the saints. Instead of modeling ourselves on them, we recreate them in our own image. This session opens with an overview of how the Ephrem of history has been systematically erased and replaced by a caricature of someone who never existed. The reasons for this are as troubling as they are destructive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekOKUwxynrs&pp=ygUWdGhlIGhpZGRlbiBwZWFybCBwcmVzcw%3D%3D

Ephrem’s World
Recovering the Ephrem of history begins by letting him speak for himself, from his own time and place. How did the circumstances of Ephrem’s life shape him? How did Ephrem become Ephrem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSpMVpxCbsc&pp=ygUWdGhlIGhpZGRlbiBwZWFybCBwcmVzcw%3D%3D

The Work of Your Helper
How did Ephrem understand himself? He informs us that he has the anointing of heaven, that he speaks for God, that the power that animates and enlivens scripture flows into him, and through him, into his own time. But there are skeletons in his closet: Ephrem carries a dark secret from his past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF1_w7_9ebw&pp=ygUWdGhlIGhpZGRlbiBwZWFybCBwcmVzcw%3D%3D

Why Ephrem Matters
Ephrem’s vision offers a path that is simple but hard. It is not the path of orthodoxy (right doctrine) or orthopraxy (right morality) but of orthopathy (authentic spirituality), which is nothing less than an embrace of ROZO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4SgV4_RCRw&pp=ygUWdGhlIGhpZGRlbiBwZWFybCBwcmVzc9IHCQmECQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D

Why Ephrem Matters Ephrem’s vision offers a path that is simple but hard. It is not the path of orthodoxy (right doctrine) or orthopraxy (right morality) but of orthopathy (aut...

Maronite Enrichment Days 2024 The Maronite Enrichment Days is a two-day seminar focusing on topics related to Syriac theology, spirituality, hagiography, history, and liturgy. Its goal is...

Père Paul Scholarship for Eastern Christian Studies To encourage and financially support young scholars in the field of Syriac Studies is the main goal of the Père Paul Scholarship for Eastern Christian Studies. The Hidden Pearl Press chooses, every year, two graduate students to award a modest monetary grant for manifesting excellence in their rese...

Lives of Syriac Saints is the second volume of Syriac Treasures includes vocalized Syriac texts, introductions, and English translations of works by: (1) Jacob of Serugh, on Saint Simeon the Stylite; (2) Jacob of Serugh, on Zokhe; (3) Jacob of Serugh, on The Blessed Julian Saba; (4) Jacob of Serugh, on Shmuno and Guryo; (5) Marinus and Anatolus, Acts of Sharbel the Martyr.

Translations by Sebastian P. Brock, Jeanne-Nicolle Mellon Saint-Laurent, and Armando Elkhoury

https://thehiddenpearl.press/product/lives-of-syriac-saints/