By Fr. George Dorbarakis
The Holy Hymnographer, the Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanites, does not have many details at his disposal from the life of the Venerable Martyr Ephraim in order to present and interpret them in a spiritual and theological way. For this is the task of a hymnographer of our Church: to base himself on the earthly life of a Saint, yet to perceive the depth of his life — that is, his life in Christ — which gives the tone and the fragrance of His grace, especially by focusing on his ascetic or martyric end. In this way, moreover, the Saint becomes a model for the faithful, and the saying is fulfilled: “to honor a martyr is to imitate a martyr.”
Thus, the Venerable Hymnographer in this case does not have many details about Saint Ephraim. Yet the few he possesses, through divine inspiration and his experience in the Holy Spirit, are multiplied in his hands, to the point that he offers us a wealth of spiritual blossoms from the newly-revealed Venerable Martyr.
What gives him the occasion to hymn the Saint — and through him, of course, the Lord Himself? The fact that from childhood he was dedicated to God as a monk; that he lived a consistent ascetic life while he remained in the monastery; that he confirmed his good ascetic struggle with the martyrdom of his blood when the monastery was attacked by the Hagarenes; that his relics, by God’s good pleasure, were discovered fragrant — a sign of his holiness; and finally, that he performs many miracles by the grace of God, both through the invocation of his name and through the veneration of his relics.
Beyond his brief synaxarion, this concise presentation of the Saint is given especially in the Oikos of the Matins Service:
“From your youth, O Father, you followed Christ; therefore you completely renounced turning toward the world and the pleasures of the flesh. And being lifted up by the love of God, you shone like a star on the mountain of Amomon, living as an angel. Thus you became a dwelling-place of divine energy through your ascetic labors, showing how your soul and body were purified from soul-destroying passions. And when you fell into the murderous hands of foreign invaders, you displayed martyr-like steadfastness amid the various torments and wounds you endured, receiving a violent death for the sake of Christ. Therefore the life-giving Lord crowned you with double crowns, O venerable martyr Ephraim, you who fervently entreat the Lord that those who hymn you may be shown mercy.”
These basic elements are repeated by the wise Hymnographer, but each repetition offers us a deeper and more particular insight, leading us into the heart of the Saint and into the experience of the energies of the Spirit of God that dwelt within him.
- Among the most characteristic of his observations is that the Saint’s turning toward God from childhood reveals the love for Him that filled his soul, and this is what explains his holy life. As it is said: “When you denied yourself from your youth, because you were wounded by divine eros, then, O venerable one, you took up the Cross of the Savior” (Vespers Sticheron). This fervent love for Christ is not vague. For the Church and our saints, it is expressed as a turning toward His commandments, within which He Himself is contained, according to His own words. “From childhood you directed your mind toward the commandments of the Lord, O venerable one, for the higher life” (Ode 1). This means that one loves Christ when one is in a constant — and even agonizing — effort to keep His will. One finds Christ at the very moment one seeks Him. And since His commandments are summed up in love for one’s neighbor, one finds Christ when one “finds” one’s neighbor. As the saying of the Desert Fathers goes: “On the neighbor depends life and death.”
- His ascetic struggles in the monastery — fasting, obediences, bodily toil, vigils, and exhausting prayers — are understood precisely in this light: as daily expressions of love for God. One may see a monk and at first perhaps not be moved, yet his inner life pulses with the intensity of the struggle to seek God. This is what is called the “martyrdom of the conscience,” which is also the prerequisite for the martyrdom of blood. In other words, no one can become a martyr of the Lord without preparation, a truth repeatedly emphasized in the texts and writings of the Church. We see the same understanding in the Hymnographer regarding Saint Ephraim: “The Lord of glory accepted your ascetic life, O venerable Father Ephraim; therefore He also counted you worthy of the glory of martyrdom” (Vespers Doxastikon).
In the present case, the Venerable Hymnographer goes a bit further, offering a kind of “original” view of the preparation for martyrdom. What do we mean? It is well known that even among the ancient martyrs — and especially among the later ones — for someone to remain faithful in martyrdom, particularly if he had previously denied the faith (that is, if he had become an apostate), he necessarily needed a trainer, a guide, an “anointer,” to direct and prepare him for martyrdom. This is because we human beings are weak and can easily, when faced with difficulties, turn aside and become deniers of the Lord — let us recall even the great Apostle Peter.
Thus, the Hymnographer, speaking of Saint Ephraim, considers that in place of such a trainer and guide for martyrdom stood his holy ascetic life. “You lifted your mind to God through divine ascents and mortified the sinful, fleshly mindset. Therefore you were shown to be a treasure of dispassion, O all-blessed Ephraim, training yourself for the contest of martyrdom through the labors of asceticism” (Ode 3). The ascetic labors take the place of the trainer.
- Father Gerasimos also proceeds in an exceptionally inspired way. In order to emphasize from another perspective the ascetic mindset of Saint Ephraim, which made him receptive to the energies of the Spirit, he makes double use of the name of the place where the monastery is located: the “Mountain of the Blameless” or Mount Amomos. First, it is a mountain that is paralleled with the mountain of God according to David, for spiritual ascents. Ephraim ascended the mountain, and therefore he also moved spiritually in a similar way: through his spiritual struggle he ascends the mountain of God. “Ascending the mountain of Amomos, you lifted your mind, according to David, toward the eternal mountains (that is, God)” (Kathisma of Matins). Then, the name of the mountain becomes a symbol of the inner orientation of the young monk: that his heart should become blameless and pure from every sin that defiles it. “Making the name of the place of the monastery a reality, you appeared blameless and without reproach according to the ordinances of the Lord, cleansing yourself from every passion for material things” (Vespers Doxastikon). And again: “You cultivated virtue on the Mountain of the Blameless, as on the mountain of the Lord, and you were shown to be innocent of injustice and pure in heart, because you were clothed in righteousness” (Liti).
- The fact that the Saint lived an ascetic life pleasing to God and was martyred in a God-pleasing manner leads the Holy Hymnographer to the observation commonly made in similar cases of venerable martyrs: that he was crowned doubly by the Lord — both for his asceticism and for his martyrdom. And also that, standing on the same path as the ancient venerable martyrs, he is set alongside them — equal among the ascetics, equal among the martyrs. The Hymnographer again opens our eyes: “The venerable one lived a virtuous life here in his monastery, and he also walked the struggles of the martyrs; therefore he was deemed worthy by the Savior of double crowns” (Vespers Sticheron). “As a venerable one among ascetics and a martyr among the venerables, you received double crowns from the Lord, and you obtained the grace of miracles, O venerable martyr Ephraim” (Vespers Aposticha Doxastikon).
And taking occasion from this double crowning of the Saint, the Elder Hymnographer also “perceives” the double grace of the monastery itself. Every place, of course, as sustained by the uncreated grace of the Lord, is a place of the Lord — “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Christians do not move through the world in a Manichaean way, choosing “holy” places and rejecting “sinful” ones. Holiness and sinfulness are found in the souls of human beings, not in external things. Nevertheless, a place that is already holy because of the omnipresence of the Lord multiplies its holiness when it has been sanctified by the virtuous ascetic life of a saint, and even more so by his blood sanctified through martyrdom. This is precisely what our Hymnographer emphasizes: the monastery of the Saint in Nea Makri, beyond whatever sanctification it already possesses, became above all a place of grace, because there, in its courtyard, the newly-revealed Saint lived in holiness and was martyred in blood. He expresses it beautifully: “The Mountain of Amomos was truly watered, O venerable one, by your ascetic sweats, and was sanctified by the streams of your blood” (Vespers Sticheron).
- Finally, the grace-filled Hymnographer, beyond emphasizing the miracle-working gift of the Saint — by which he continually and swiftly grants solutions and healings to every need — also offers an answer as to why the relics of the Saint were revealed in this more recent time. He gives two reasons.
First, that the Lord was pleased for the Saint to become the means by which He would offer His riches to the faithful through the miracles He allows him to perform. “Though you were unknown in former years, now you have become known to us, Ephraim, and you have given us as a treasure your venerable relics” (Vespers Aposticha).
Second, and more importantly, the Lord willed that the glorification of the Saint revealed in these latter times should also reveal the glorification of every Christian who lives faithfully according to His holy will. As He Himself says, that the saints in His Kingdom will shine like the sun. In other words, the Lord once again revealed His love, directing the faithful toward the future gifts prepared for them, so that they might also understand the meaning of the afflictions and sufferings of this present life — since afflictions function as a “vehicle” for the sanctification of man, according to the revelation given by the Lord to His Apostle Paul: “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
“Father Ephraim, you were hidden in the past for many years, but by divine good pleasure you were revealed to us, indirectly revealing the future glory and brightness which those who obeyed the will of the Lord blamelessly will be deemed worthy to receive” (Vespers Sticheron).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
