When Abba Ephrem was still a child, he saw a dream—or rather, a vision—in which a vine rose from his tongue, grew, and filled everything under heaven. It was exceedingly fruitful. All the birds of heaven came and ate from the fruit of the vine, and the more they ate, the more its fruit increased.
Another time, one of the saints saw in a vision an order of angels descending from heaven at God’s command, carrying in their hands a scroll, that is, a volume written inside and out. They said to one another, “To whom should this be entrusted?” Some named one person and others another. Then they answered, “Truly they are holy and righteous, but no one can be entrusted with this except Ephrem.” The elder saw them give the scroll to Ephrem. When he rose in the morning, he heard Ephrem composing, while words poured from his mouth like a flowing spring, and he knew that what came through Ephrem’s lips was from the Holy Spirit.
Another time, as Ephrem was passing by, a prostitute was sent to flatter him into shameful intercourse, or at least to provoke him to anger, since no one had ever seen him angry. He said to her, “Follow me.” When he came near a very crowded place, he said to her, “Come, in this place do what you wanted.” Seeing the crowd, she said to him, “How can we do this with such a crowd standing here and not be ashamed?” He said to her, “If we are ashamed before people, how much more ought we to be ashamed before God, who exposes the hidden things of darkness?” She was ashamed and went away without accomplishing anything.