Elder Isidoros the Blind of Philotheou Has Reposed

Elder Isidoros the Blind of Philotheou reposed on Sunday November 27, 2022 at the Athonite Monastery of Philotheou at the age of 87.

Thousands of souls found comfort and benefit both with his words and prayers throughout the years when he would come out of Mount Athos twice a year.

The late Elder Isidoros was born in Patras with impaired vision.

At the age of 15, he underwent eye surgery, leaving him completely blind.

Elder Ephraim of Arizona and the Holy Skull of Saint Joseph the Hesychast

By Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona

When we did the exhumation of the Elder, three years after his repose, we removed him with an amber color - this is a sign of holiness. All his holy relics were like amber.

At the exhumation, all the brothers who were there said, "I will take this," "I will take the other" and I said to myself: "I will not speak at all, whatever they give me."

Father Athanasios took his hand, saying:

"This little hand saved me, with the batteries I was eating!"

And while everyone was taking a piece of his holy relic for a blessing, I was sitting aside. Then Elder Arsenios turns and says:

"Give the head to Papa-Ephraim."

Fishing for the Grace of God (Instructions on Vigilance from Saint Joseph the Hesychast to Elder Ephraim of Arizona)

I would go at night, and when he came out of his hut, I would approach him and tell him that sleep was fighting against me.

"Stay strong! Hold your weapon and do not be afraid," he replied.

In the summer the boats came and fished with the light, with the lamps.

The Bright Example of the Much-Contested Job (Elder Ephraim of Arizona)

By Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Today our Orthodox Church celebrates the holy and much-contested Job, the righteous Job. Why? Because he contested much, he was in many contests. He received many crowns, he brought many victories. Where? In the sea of life. And we see in his biography, that this Saint, in the time he lived, in those years when there was no Orthodox Church, Christ had not come down, God the Word had not incarnated, the world did not see the life of Christ, no one saw God in the flesh, they did not see His miracles, they saw nothing. And yet, with a simple faith in the Creator, in the Maker, he became the Great Atlas of God. With a simple faith, seeing the creation, the operation of creation, he saw the upper world, the stars, the seasons and everything he saw working perfectly, from time immemorial, without anything created going astray from its creation, not in the slightest. How is it possible, he said, for material things to be made with such science and to function with such scientific precision without a Creator? Reason, conscience, made him submit to unwavering faith. With this awareness, of faith in the Creator, he became a great believer. Establishing his faith on these things and hitting rock bottom, he was confronted by the great Dragon, the deceitful Devil.

A Prayer Written by Elder Ephraim of Arizona from the Friday Before Palm Sunday in 1980

Friday Before Palm Sunday,
15 March 1980

In my poor prayer tonight I begged my Heavenly King and Father to erase from me the crimes of my soul whatever I have written with my carelessness.

May my tears fall on my written sins and erase them. My God do me this great favor and act of mercy, and remove the infinite multitude of my small and great sins. I have wept much regarding the blemishes on the garment of my soul. How will I present myself to my Bridegroom with so many stains and filth?

A Car Ride With Elder Agathon of Konstamonitou (+ 2020)

 

A certain pilgrim wrote:

 

This past summer God fulfilled my desire to meet Elder Agathon and receive his blessing!

Elder Agathon had resigned due to health reasons as Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Konstamonitou on the Holy Mountain in 2018 and over the past year he resided in the Metochion of the Monastery which honors the Holy Protomartyr Stephen located in Perea, Thessaloniki.

The late Elder was a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona, the founder of Athonite Monasticism in the United States of America, who in 1979 sent him along with other fathers of Philotheou to staff the Sacred Monastery of Konstamonitou.

"I See Your Bridal Chamber" (Elder Ephraim of Arizona)

By Elder Ephraim of Arizona

"I see Your Bridal Chamber adorned, O my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter therein. O Giver of Light, make radiant the garment of my soul, and save me,” chants our Church during Holy Week.

The Christian soul, the repentant soul, the soul who is conscious of her sinfulness and accountability, turns her eyes toward the Bridegroom of the Church and woefully exclaims, "My Savior and my Benefactor: You were crucified for me the sinful soul. I do not possess a clean, radiant garment cleansed with tears and repentance. I do not have a pure garment. How will I appear before You, O Heavenly Bridegroom of every repentant and pure soul? Your bridal chamber is beautifully adorned and wonderfully embellished. I, however, do not have the necessary garment in order to dwell therein eternally. Please, I beg of You, O Heavenly Bridegroom of my soul: Make me radiant, and cleanse the garment of my soul. Give me the required means of purification in order for this garment to become radiant, and make me worthy of partaking and dwelling in Your heavenly and eternal bridal chamber.”

Elder Ephraim of the Holy Mountain and Arizona

Elder Ephraim holding Metr. Hierotheos' book on Saint Paisios the Athonite

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On Saturday 7 December 2019 Elder Ephraim fell asleep in the Lord and the Holy Monastery of St Anthony in Arizona in the USA. His funeral service was held on 11 December 2019 at the same Monastery in the midst of many of his spiritual children, whom he brought to new birth spiritually: clergy, monks and laypeople of all ages and categories.

He was honoured by the Ecumenical Patriarch with a message that was read out during the funeral service by the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain, Archimandrite Nikodimos, who afterwards spoke on his own behalf, as well as by the presence of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who described his personality and the work that he had accomplished.

I have been linked with the ever-blessed Hieromonk Ephraim in many and different ways over many years, and in this article I shall set out some of my thoughts about the Elder of blessed memory.

The Vision of Monk Elias After the Repose of Elder Ephraim of Arizona

On Friday morning the 13th of December the Great Schema Monk Elias reposed in the Lord at Saint Anthony's Monastery in Arizona, six days after the repose of Elder Ephraim. On the night Elder Ephraim reposed, he saw in his sleep Elder Joseph the Hesychast with Elder Ephraim in a bright light, and Elder Ephraim said to him: "Don't worry, shortly you will be with us." Indeed, six days later Monk Elias departed to the Lord.

Elder Ephraim of Arizona Has Reposed

Yesterday, December 7th 2019, the much-beloved Elder Ephraim of Arizona reposed in the Lord after being ill for many years. According to reports, Elder Ephraim was aware of his impending death some days before, and despite this he would still daily go out and give his blessing to the people. His personal doctor told him to not go out Saturday evening, the day of his repose, to bless the people. Elder Ephraim was lucid on the day of his repose and partook of the Immaculate Mysteries. Then at 9:00pm (Mountain Standard Time), as he was upright occupied with something, he suddenly tilted slightly to the side and died. Nurses found him practically upright, having delivered his spirit to the Lord.

Elder Ephraim of Arizona Exposes Old Calendarism

By Elder Ephraim of Arizona

(transcribed and translated from an audio lecture)

Years ago there was a spiritual father who was Cypriot that was a very good man. Initially he was at Stavrovouni, a monastery in Cyprus, when he was younger, but still a hieromonk. When he was at this monastery, he himself told me, a certain Athonite zealot father who followed the Old Calendar fled there. By "zealot" I mean a fanatical Old Calendarist, who condemn the Church as heretical and schismatic.

His name was Father John. I knew him. He had fled from Mount Athos, from the Skete of Saint Anna, and he went to Cyprus. There in Cyprus he tried to create an Old Calendarist branch and then went to Stavrovouni Monastery, as the hieromonk himself told me, and he began to speak on behalf of the Old Calendar to the fathers of the monastery there. He also spoke with this hieromonk, that the liturgies he was doing were not liturgies, and the mysteries he was doing were not mysteries, that they do not have grace, blessing, and so on.

Holy Pascha at Saint Anthony's Monastery in Arizona (video)

A Conversation With Elder Ephraim of Arizona

The following conversation was recorded by monastic spiritual children from Greece of Elder Ephraim of Arizona, formerly of Philotheou, who visited him in May 2014 at the Sacred Monastery of Saint Anthony the Great in Arizona.