Elder Joseph of Vatopedi - Saint Ephraim of Katounakia

“Tell me, father, what is that light that you have within your breast?”

“It’s the Great Schema, Elder.”

“What is it?”

“The Angelic Schema.”

“I see the Angelic Schema. I’m talking about something else. The Angelic Schema is red; but that light inside that’s white, what is it?”

“I don’t know, Elder. What light is it?”

“You have it and you don’t know what it is? Let me tell you what it is. That light is from Holy Baptism. It’s the grace that you received at Baptism.”

“Does it show?”

“Yes. But tell me, there above the light, what’s written there? What word is this?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see anything.”

“I know better than you! You yourself have it, and I’m going to have to explain it to you? Ahh! It appears that you love your elder, and for that reason you have his name—within the light you have the name of your elder. In any event, you’re to be envied, you’re deserving of blessedness, since within this grace of Holy Baptism you’ve written the name of your elder.”

Saint Ephraim of Katounakia is one of the most beloved of the great Athonite elders of our time. On the occasion of his recent enrollment into the ranks of the saints of the Orthodox Church, which occurred at the same time as the glorification of his own Elder, Saint Joseph the Hesychast, we present to the world the republication of the life and teachings of the saint, written by one of his spiritual brothers, Elder Joseph of Vatopedi of blessed memory. Elder Joseph knew Saint Ephraim personally from the outset of his monastic life on Mount Athos, and remained bonded with him in Christ for the rest of his life.

This little book of the life and teachings of Saint Ephraim of Katounakia is the third in the Holy Mountain Series, a new book series created to help quench the spiritual thirst of our brethren with the empirical, ascetic teaching on the spiritual life of the Holy Orthodox Church, which has been lived to perfection on the Holy Mountain by countless monks for over ten centuries. The Holy Mountain, also known as Mount Athos, has given birth to thousands of saints in the Orthodox Church, most of whom are known to God alone.