Saint Osiomartys Ephraim, the miracle worker ~

Saint Osiomartys Ephraim, the miracle worker, is one of the youngest Saints of our Orthodox Christian Church and, admittedly, as soon as someone invokes him, he hurries to help. His name was Konstantinos Morphis and he was originally from Trikala, Thessaly. He was orphaned from the tender age of eight years old and in order to avoid being kidnapped by the Turks (see “paidomazoma” ), his mother advised him to find refuge in the monastery. In 1424 the Turks violently invaded the Monastery of the Annunciation and slaughtered all the Fathers of the monastery. The Saint was absent in a cave on the mountain for prayer and as soon as he returned, he saw the corpses of the Fathers and after burying them, he mourned loudly.

The following year, in 1425, the barbarians returned and found the Saint. He was arrested and tortured for eight and a half months with great fury and barbarism. Finally, they hung him upside down from an old mulberry tree that existed in the courtyard of the monastery (it still survives today) and pierced him with a large stick burned in the abdomen, then nailed him to the tree with large nails. The Saint, despite the horrible pains, continued to pray and ended his life as a martyr in the hands of Turks on May 5, 1426, at the age of 42. Iconographers often portray him holding a flame in his right hand, which represents his fiery, till the end of his martyrdom, strong faith. Six centuries have passed since his martyrdom and the miracles that his grace has bestowed upon us not only continue to exist but are innumerable.

In 1945 A.D. the nun Makaria went to the ruins of the ancient monastery of The Annunciation, called Stavropigi, of Mount Amomon, in Pentelikon. There she formed a small cell and began to clean the ruins of the old Temple in order to reconstruct it. She often thought about the monks that had lived in those soils and prayed that one of them would know or reveal himself to her. A voice, initially slow but strengthening in her soul, said to her: “Dig and you will find what you desire”, until the moment when a spot had been revealed to her in the courtyard of the monastery.

So on January 3, 1950 A.D. she commissioned a worker to dig the spot indicated by her own soul. Although the worker was initially negative and did not want to dig there, eventually, after appeals and prayers, he was convinced and set off. The spot had a half-ruined fireplace, wall, and things that showed that there was once a monk’s cell there. The first find was a head, and the space gave off a scent.

“I knelt in reverence and embraced the relics of the Saint and felt deeply the extent of his martyrdom. My soul was filled with joy, I acquired great treasure, and taking the soil with care I saw the harmony of his relic, which, although so many centuries in the earth, had not been altered,” wrote then the abbess Macaria who took out the whole relic and placed it in a locker above the tomb.

In the evening, reading Vespers, the Abbess heard footsteps. The sound came from the tomb, echoing to the door of the Church. There he first saw St. Ephraim. Tall, with small round eyes, with a long black beard that reached the neck, dressed in solitary attire. On one hand, he had a flame and on the other, he was giving blessings. He asked to be taken out of this locker. The very next day the Abbess cleaned the bones and placed them in a locker in the Sanctuary of the Temple. That same evening the Saint appeared in her sleep, thanked her, and revealed his name to her: Ephraim.

The relic of St. Ephraim has been kept there since then and every day hundreds of believers visit it asking the Saint for His blessing and help. The nunnery of St. Ephraim celebrates every year on the date of the feast of St. Ephraim (May 5), on January 3 (the date of finding the Holy Relics of the saint), as well as the Annunciation (March 25).