Father Ephrem Carr, O.S.B., a Benedictine monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana, and a long-time member of the faculty at Sant’ Anselmo, was elected President of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute on November 13, 2008. Following approval by Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, O.S.B., Father Ephrem began his four-year term of office in December. The Pontifical Liturgical Institute was established in 1961 by Blessed Pope John XXIII in order to deepen and strengthen the historical and theological study of the Church’s liturgy, which is the heart of its prayer life.
Father Ephrem is eminently qualified to take on this new and great responsibility. He has been a Professor of the Liturgical Institute since 1987, where he teaches courses in Oriental Liturgy, Oriental Monasticism, and Syriac. He further teaches Patristic Greek at the Augustinianum in Rome, and Early Church History at the Pontifical College of St. Bede. Father Ephrem has published and edited many scholarly articles and books in his thirty-year teaching career, and remains active in academic research and writing. He received his doctorate in Liturgy from Sant’ Anselmo in 1978, having already completed a Licentiate in Oriental Studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in 1970.

In addition to teaching at Sant’ Anselmo and at other Roman academies, Father Ephrem served his own monastic community as an Instructor and later Professor at St. Meinrad Seminary from 1970 until 1986. He also served as Sub-Prior of St. Meinrad Archabbey from 1978 until 1985. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Father Ephrem entered the monastic community of St. Meinrad in 1962, professing simple vows in 1963. He made his solemn profession of vows in 1966, and was ordained to the priesthood the following year. Having spent many years of his Benedictine life at Sant’ Anselmo, Father Ephrem is excited to begin a new chapter of his life of service to the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’ Anselmo, to the Benedictine Order, and to the universal Church.