Ephraim of Perekop was a fifteenth-century Russian monastic founder who established a monastery on the River Verenda near Lake Ilmen, in the territory of Novgorod. Born in 1412 in the town of Kashin and baptized Eustathius, he is remembered in the Russian tradition as a wonderworker and is commemorated on September 26, the day of his repose.
According to the synaxarion, Eustathius left his parents' home in his youth and entered the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at Kalyazin. After some years he moved to the monastery of Saint Savva of Vishersk, where in 1437 he received monastic tonsure and the name Ephraim. He was subsequently ordained a priest at Novgorod by Saint Euthymius, the city's archbishop.
Ephraim later withdrew to an island at the mouth of the River Verenda, where he founded his own community. He built a wooden church dedicated to the Theophany of the Lord and, to supply the monastery with water, dug a canal connecting the site to Lake Ilmen. From this work of digging the monastery took its name, Perekop, derived from the Russian word meaning 'to dig through.' He afterward built a stone church dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, the construction of which was completed in 1466.
Ephraim reposed on September 26, 1492, and was buried at the church of Saint Nicholas he had built. In the following century his relics were transferred, on May 16, 1545, to the monastery's relocated site, and he was numbered among the saints at the Russian council of 1549. He is commemorated both on September 26 and on May 16, the date associated with the translation of his relics.
