Life and Martyrdom
The tradition surrounding Ephraim places his origins in Trikala, in Thessaly, where he is said to have been born in 1384 under the name Konstantinos Morphes. Having taken up the monastic life, he settled on Mount Amomon in Attica and joined the Monastery of the Annunciation of Our Lady, the community with which his memory is permanently bound.
In 1424 the monastery was overrun and destroyed by Ottoman troops. Ephraim survived the assault and continued to dwell as a hermit amid the ruined buildings for roughly a year. In September 1425 he was captured in a further raid, and there followed a captivity that the tradition describes as lasting more than eight months, marked by severe torture. He was put to death on 5 May 1426. A mulberry tree at the monastery is venerated as the instrument of his execution.
Discovery of the Relics
For more than five centuries the martyr's name was forgotten. In 1950 a hermit nun, Sister Makaria Desypri, who had settled at the abandoned site, reported a series of dreams she understood as divine revelations disclosing the saint's identity and history. A body believed to be that of Ephraim was subsequently uncovered near her hermitage, some 524 years after the recorded date of his death.
The discovery prompted the rebuilding of the Monastery of the Annunciation at Nea Makri, which grew into a prominent pilgrimage center.
Veneration and Glorification
Ephraim is honored as a wonderworking saint, and devotion to him spread rapidly through Greece and beyond in the second half of the twentieth century. On 4 March 2011 the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate formally entered him among the saints of the Church of Greece.
He is commemorated on 5 May, the anniversary of his martyrdom, and on 3 January for the discovery of his relics.
Historical Note
The recorded life of Ephraim rests on the tradition that arose after the 1950 discovery of the relics, particularly the accounts attributed to Sister Makaria. No independent contemporary sources documenting him as a historical figure are known, and this is acknowledged in scholarly discussion of his cult. His veneration as a saint, however, has been formally received by the Church.
