Ode I

Irmos: Traversing the deep on foot, as though it were dry land, and seeing the tyrant Pharaoh drowned, Israel cried aloud: Let us chant unto God a hymn of victory!

Give strength and words to my lips, O Word of God and God, that I may hymn the venerable Isaac, who splendidly glorified Thee with a perfect life and instructed the ranks of monastics with divinely inspired discourse.

Theotokion: Having received the incorrupt Word in thy womb, thou gavest birth to Him Who delivereth from corruption those who ever worship Him, O pure Mother and Virgin, who art truly the portal of Life.

Canon of the venerable one, the acrostic whereof is: “I honor Ephraim, the noetic Euphrates”, the composition of Theophanes, in Tone VI—

Irmos: The staff of Moses, once working a wonder, striking the sea in the form of the Cross and dividing it, drowned the mounted tyrant Pharaoh, and saved Israel who fled on foot, chanting a hymn unto God.

Hating all carnal luxuriousness from thy youth, O blessed Isaac, and having been wounded by divine love from thy youth, with thy brother thou didst take the Cross of the Lord upon thy shoulders and choose the life of asceticism.

Theotokion: Without knowing wedlock, thou didst conceive God Who for our sake became immutably incarnate like us through thy pure blood, O all-pure Mary Theotokos. Wherefore, deliver us from changing to the worse.

With the flood of thy supplications like the Euphrates water thou my soul, which hath been desiccated by the burning heat of the passions, and inspire discourse within me who praise thy festival, O most blessed one.

Upborne by love of Christ the Bestower of life, O venerable one, thou didst soar aloft to the life of heaven, and through ascetic labors wast shown to be a stranger and sojourner on the earth, O all-blessed father Isaac.

Shining forth noetic light, thou didst show thyself to be a radiant sun, O Ephraim, illumining all the fullness of the faithful with brilliant virtues and teachings.

Extinguishing the flame of the passions with streams of tears, O divinely blessed Ephraim, thou wast a precious vessel of the Holy Spirit, pouring forth wellsprings of doctrines.