Ephraim Nea Makri

Description

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 and miracle-working saint by Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and Greek Orthodox Church. 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, in Attica, Greece. The saint, whose body was kept as a holy relic, 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 in 2011.