Ephraim The Neomartyr
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St. Ephraim the Neomartyr, Ephraim the Martyr, or Ephraim of Mount Amomon (Greek: Άγιος Εφραίμ ο μάρτυρας / του Όρους των Αμώμων), believed to have lived from 1384 to 1426, is venerated as a
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
and
miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...
-working
saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
by
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...
and
Greek Orthodox Church The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...
. His status as a saint is controversial, as there are no sources testifying to his existence as an historical person. Believers regard him as a "newly revealed" ("νεοφανής") saint, whose existence is a matter of divine revelation rather than historical proof.


History

St. Ephraim's name and biography, complete with exact dates and details, is said to have been revealed to a hermit nun, Makaria Desipri, in a series of divinely inspired dreams in 1950. Following these dreams, a body believed to be that of the saint was found in the ground near the nun's hermitage, on the site of an abandoned medieval monastery on the slopes of Mount Amomon, near the today town of
Nea Makri Nea Makri ( el, Νέα Μάκρη) is a town in East Attica, Greece. Since the local government reform of 2011, it has been a municipal unit within the municipality of Marathon. The municipal unit has an area of 36.662 km2. It is part of the ...
, in
Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
, Greece. The saint, whose body was kept as a holy
relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
, quickly became the object of popular veneration, as he came to be known as a worker of miraculous healings. On the site of his supposed life and martyrdom a ''Monastery of the Annunciation of Our Lady'' (Ιερά Μονή Ευαγγελισμού της Θεοτόκου) was later erected. In 1998, St. Ephraim was officially declared a saint by the Synod of the Orthodox Church in Greece, which was approved by the
Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...
in 2011.


Biography

According to the dreams revealed to Makaria Desipri, St. Ephraim was born on 14 September 1384 in
Trikala Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...
,
Thessalia Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessa ...
. His civil name was Konstantinos Morphes. He became a monk, took the monastic name of Ephraim and moved to Attica to live in what was then the Monastery of the Annunciation of Our Lady on Mount Amomon. In 1424 the monastery was destroyed by marauding Ottoman troops. Ephraim escaped and lived for another year as a hermit among the ruins of the monastery. On 14 September 1425 he was captured in another Turkish raid. He was held captive and tormented for more than eight months, until he was finally tortured to death on 5 May 1426. A mulberry tree, believed to be that on which the saint was hanged, is today shown as an object of veneration inside the re-erected monastery.


Veneration

St. Ephraim is portrayed in
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
as a slim, ascetic figure with black hair and beard, clad in the black robes of a monk. His
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
s are 3 January (the anniversary of the discovery of his body), and 5 May (the anniversary of his martyrdom). The monastery in Nea Makri, the centre of the saint's veneration and his miracle-working, is now a much-frequented place of
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
attracting thousands of visitors, especially people praying for the healing of illnesses. The monastery was the object of a public scandal in 2005, as the nuns of the monastery and the bishop of Attica accused each other of
embezzling Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
money from pilgrims' donations.


References

* Antenna Radio: News in Greek, 14 May 199

* Saint Ephraim page in Greek wikipedia referencing Patriarchal declaratio

* BBC News in Greek, 31 May 200

* Devotional website, including the saint's biography and history of the monastery. In Greek & English,

{{authority control Greek saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church East Attica New Martyrs