Description
St. Ephraim was a new martyr of the Turkish Yoke, and was unknown until hundreds of years after his death. A Greek nun went to live in an old monastery that had been in ruins for a long time, hoping to build it up again into a working convent. While she was working hard and living a strict ascetic life there, St. Ephraim began to appear to her and told her of his martyrdom.
Along with many other brothers of his monastery in that very spot, he had been captured by the Turks and told to deny his Christian Faith. When the monks continued to confess Christ, they were tortured and eventually put to death. St. Ephraim was horribly tortured. He was hung from a tree, had his stomach slashed open where the Turks lit a fire inside the Holy Martyr. His torture went on for many weeks until he finally died and went to Christ. For many years all this was unknown, but after this nun arrived, she and others had visions of the saint’s life and martyrdom, and when his relics were discovered and put in the restored church, they began to work many miracles in our times. A great wonder-worker, St. Ephraim, if prayed to, hears our sincere prayers to God.