The Life of Saint Mary the Harlot is later attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian, deacon of the church in Edessa and was likely written towards the end of his life, though there have been claims against Ephrem's authorship. The text itself appears to have originally been composed in Syriac, and would circulate through Christendom under its Latin and Greek translation. It contains sixteen chapters about the life of the Syriac orphan, Mary and her uncle Abraham. The text concludes with a prayer, as it surviving in Latin, allegedly composed by St. Ephrem.