The abbot of Vatopedi Monastery, Archimandrite Ephraim was remembered on Monday at the Divine Liturgy celebrated on the Feast of the Holy Trinity at the outdoor altar of the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.
During the service presided over by His Grace Bishop Varlaam of Ploieşti, special petitions and prayers were offered for the quick recovery of Abbot Ephraim, who was infected with SARS-CoV-2.
On May 28, Abbot Ephraim was hospitalized at the Evangelismos hospital in Athens and remains intubated since June 4.
Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopedi Monastery, was born in 1956 in Cyprus.
At the age of 19, he first arrived in the Holy Mountain, where St. Ephraim of Katounakia predicted that he would become a monk, although he opposed the thought.
In 1982, he was tonsured a monk for the community of Nea Skiti of Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, a disciple of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast († 1959). The community moved to Vatopedi Monastery in 1990, and Father Ephraim was elected abbot.
Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi Monastery is very appreciated among Romanians, as he has many spiritual children in our country. During the pandemic, Abbot Ephraim held many online synaxes.
Photography courtesy of Orthodoxia News Agency
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