The Syriac corpus is one of the largest of any ancient Christian language. Beside the Peshitta Bible stand the hymns and verse homilies of Ephrem, Jacob of Serugh and Narsai, extensive biblical commentary, monastic and mystical writing including Isaac of Nineveh, chronicles, saints' lives, and the anaphoras of the Syriac liturgies.
The West Syriac rite celebrates the Liturgy of St James in Syriac, while the East Syriac rite preserves the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, among the oldest eucharistic prayers in continuous use anywhere. Syriac was also a missionary language of remarkable reach. East Syriac Christians carried it along the Silk Road into Central Asia and Tang China, where the Xi'an stele of 781 records the church's presence in both Chinese and Syriac, and to the Malabar coast of India, where the Saint Thomas Christians still use Syriac liturgy.
Today Classical Syriac remains the liturgical language of the Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Assyrian, Chaldean, Maronite and Indian Syriac churches. It is distinct from the Neo-Aramaic dialects some of these communities still speak, which descend from related but not identical Aramaic varieties. Seminaries in the Middle East, India, Europe and the Americas continue to teach it.