Ephraim of Nea Makri

Greek Orthodox Saint. Raised by his mother along with his six siblings following the early death of their father, Ephraim entered monastic life at the early age of fourteen at the monastery of the Annunciation and Saint Paraskeva on the mountain of Amoman near Nea Makri in Attica. Placing himself under monastic discipline, imitating the life of the desert fathers for twenty seven years, on September 14, 1425 the Turks led an invasion by sea, destroying the monastery and and looting the surrounding area. With Ephraim soon falling as one of their victims, he underwent great tortures during his imprisonment for refusing to renounce his faith, confined to a small cell without food or water and beaten every day. Continuing to refuse their demand of conversing to Islam, following months of horrible torments, he was hanged to a tree on May 5, 1426 after his captives pulled his beard and tattered both his clothes and flesh. Years passed and Ephraim's figure entered into oblivion. The site of the monastery taken over by a female community, one night a certain Abbess Makaria, who died on April 23, 1999, had a dream in which the spot of where his bones lay, was revealed to her. It so happened that when the area was dug out, his remains were found as indicated under six feet of rubble. The sleeves of the monk's rassophore were found alongside the body, which has since been transported to the monastery's urn and housed into an urn for veneration. His feast days are held on January 3, being the anniversary of the discovery of his body, and May 5, the anniversary of his martyrdom.