The Reconciliation of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Epiphanios of Salamis

 

Archbishop Theophilos of Alexandria was the enemy of Archbishop John Chrysostom of Constantinople. Bishop Epiphanios of Salamis, an enemy of Origenism, was told by Archbishop Theophilos that Archbishop John was harboring Origenist fugitives. Epiphanios traveled to Constantinople and conspired to discredit John and cast doubts on his leadership, while John did his best to accommodate his elderly colleague from Cyprus, not knowing he had been duped by Theophilos. Their differences, however, were irreconcilable. In the end, each bishop wished a dubious fate for the other, both of which came true: Epiphanios died on his journey home, and John was deposed twice and died in exile.

Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi Returns to his Monastery after a Three and a Half Month Battle With the Coronavirus

The return of Elder Ephraim to Vatopaidi Monastery on the Holy Mountain was an event that everyone was looking forward to. The fathers of the Monastery say that it was not accidental that he came exactly one day before the feast of the Monastery for the Holy Zoni of the Panagia. After being tested for the coronavirus in late May and for an absence of about three and a half months at Evangelismos Hospital and Animus Rehabilitation Center, he returned on September 11th healthy to his spiritual children.

The reception was modest and moving. He arrived around 7:30 p.m. at the port of the Monastery where all the Heads of the Monastery were waiting for him, while the whole brotherhood was waiting for him outside the gate of the Monastery, where the fathers, with obvious joy on their faces, lined up to receive his blessing and kiss his hand.

The Theological Concerns of Father Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopaidi Monastery

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Vatopaidi on the Holy Mountain, Archimandrite Fr. Ephraim, recently emerged from a major ordeal with the coronavirus, having escaped the jaws of death and is now in the process of recovery.

We glorify God for this development, because with prayer and medical science he will be kept alive to continue his work and his ministry in the Church.

We did not have a special communication with Fr. Ephraim of Vatopaidi from the beginning, but finally we met through Orthodox theology and specifically the theology of the Prophets, the Apostles and the Fathers.

This shows how there can be differences between mentalities, characters, events, yet communication and communion can exist through authentic Orthodox theology.

The Life and Trials of Saint Luke of Crimea

 

By Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopaidi Monastery

(Beroea, 6 June, 2016)

Most people, even Christians, are frustrated, discouraged and wearied by the sorrows of life, which are unavoidable: ‘We must suffer many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God’.[1] We shouldn’t see the sorrows of this life through the prism of transitory reasoning, but through that of eternity. This is when life acquires meaning and the meaning of sorrow in our lives is revealed to us: in the end they form the way of the Cross which we must follow in order to reach salvation and sanctification.

Saint Luke, Archbishop of Crimea and a doctor, is one of the saints who really did experience the way of the Cross and, with this experience and the gift of divine Grace which he had in abundance, he talked, taught, and was an example to all the faithful, with the sorrows and persecutions he endured without complaint.

Abortion as a Form of Genocide

By Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopaidi Monastery

We live at a time when people are becoming increasingly vindictive. Their morals are deteriorating and their minds are darkened. The absurdity that people are experiencing today is obvious and undeniable. We’re living in a time prophesied by Anthony the Great, when people who are mad appear to be rational and those who are rational are deemed mad. It may be claimed that in older times, too, there was rampant sinfulness, but we ought to note that there was never this offensive legitimization and widespread social acceptance of sin. In our time, abortions, adultery and homosexuality have all been made legal, though this would have been inconceivable until the middle of the 20th century. It’s a cause of astonishment, if nothing else, that today sin is projected not simply as legitimate, but as an ideal way of life.

The Incarnation of God as the Opposite to Today’s Sinfulness

Archimandrite Ephraim,

Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery

Beloved Fathers and brothers, today we celebrate the greatest event of all time and all ages: the birth of Christ, the ‘capital of all feasts’, according Saint John Chrysostom. God enters our life, in time, in history as ‘Jesus Christ the man’ (I Tim. 2, 5).

‘Christ appeared in the flesh’ (I Tim. 3, 16). God empties Himself, is humbled, belittles Himself, diminishes in an inconceivable manner and becomes an infant. An infant divine and human. He becomes a human person, like us, with flesh and blood, with soul and body, mind and will. Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is perfect Man and perfect God.

The Kollyvades Movement as it Appears Throughout History and in the Present

By Archimandrite Ephraim, Abbot of Vatopaidi Monastery

Throughout the history of the Church, the Holy Spirit has been endorsing some spiritual figures who not only leave their mark in their times but also become illuminating beacons for the future generations. Therefore, by looking up to them, we “the ones who have reached the end times” are able to sail through the seas of tribulation, of passions and of the devil’s delusions without danger, without “wetting our feet” to reach the port of the “true life”, of dispassion, of Sabbatism and thus accomplish our deliverance. Such personalities were the Three Hierarchs, St Maximus the Confessor, St Symeon the New Theologian, St Gregory Palamas as well as the Fathers of the Kollyvades movement.

Going Beyond Religious Fanaticism in Light of Orthodox Teaching

By Archimandrite Ephraim,

Abbot of Vatopaidi Monastery

Religious fanaticism is defined as the absolute rule of the holy over the secular, even through violence. Nowadays the term ‘religious fundamentalism’ prevails over the Greek equivalent: ‘religious fanaticism’. Even though religious fanaticism was present from the birth of ancient religions, ‘fundamentalism’ as a term had been established in the beginning of the 20th century and referred to the reaction against the secularization of religion.

Particularly in the middle of the 1860’s two basic principles of fundamentalism were articulated: the expectations of the Adventists and the belief in the divinely-inspired Bible to the letter. The Adventists, mainly English Protestants, advocated that Christ will come again in person to establish His thousand-year rule on earth for the chosen ones. At the same time strong conservative forces were strongly opposing the literary and historical critique of biblical studies and upheld the idea that the Bible was divinely-inspired and was correct to the letter. Eventually ‘fundamentalist’ as a term was established in 1920 and was used to describe ‘those doing battle, loyal to the fundamentals’.

Two Posthumous Miracles of Saint Paisios the Athonite

By Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi

(From a homily delivered in the Church of the Holy Apostles

in London, England on June 4, 2006)

I want to say that the saints who are sanctified today have great glory, great boldness towards God and help us very much. The following occurred a little prior to three months ago. A driver came from the area of Thermi near Thessaloniki. A monk stopped him and said, "My lad, can you take me until Thessaloniki?" "Of course, come." The driver was alone. He sat next to the driver and said: "Kosta, (without knowing him) you have malignant cancer in your lungs. You should go to the hospital and you’ll catch it." Immediately the monk disappeared. He was amazed. He made a few phone calls and related what happened. They brought him a few photographs. They asked him if he recognized which was the monk. He recognized Elder Paisios. He of course went to the hospital. The doctors tested him and found malignant cancer in the lungs, though he himself felt no pain. See how these men who pleased God appear after their death to confirm the truth of the gospel.

Contemporary Man and the Spiritual Life

On Thursday, 23 January 2014, over 600 people filled a room at Eleon Loft in Athens to hear a lecture by the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Vatopaidi, Elder Ephraim, on the topic "Contemporary Man and the Spiritual Life".

Among those in attendance were His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodona, party members, community leaders, clergy, monastics, students and many people.

After opening with a prayer, he said among other things the following:

Elder Ephraim of Vatopaidi Interviewed Concerning the War With Sinful Thoughts

January 9, 2014

Briefing News

Are thoughts (logismoi) a part of ourselves? Is it part of our thinking? How are they born and how do we fight against them? How does a person succeed in conquering them or approach the derivatives of good and evil?

The known Russian magazine "Slavianka" conducted a substantial interview with the abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Vatopaidi, Archimandrite Ephraim, on the main theme: "Sinful Thoughts".

Elder Ephraim, who is known to all for the power of his spiritual words and the clarity with which he describes complex topics, now has given us a clear image on sinful thoughts, though he stressed that there are even thoughts which make us stronger spiritually.

The truth is that many of us do not know the state of our thoughts and how much they can damage our spiritual integrity or our efforts to move towards such spiritual integrity.

What are thoughts? How do they spring up daily in our lives? How do we recognize them and manage them? These are some of the issue that Elder Ephraim will illuminate for us.

We present below excerpts that were published in the Russian magazine "Slavianka":