Ephraim of Arizona

Geronda Ephraim of Arizona (1928-2019), archimandrite, Athonite elder and founder of monasteries in North America, was one of the best known Greek spiritual fathers of his time. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He was born on 24 June 1928 at Volos in Greece, with the name Ioannis Moraitis, the son of Demetrios and Victoria. He entered Mount Athos in 1947 and was a disciple of Saint Joseph the Hesychast. On 13 July 1948 he was tonsured a monk with the name Ephraim. After the death of his spiritual father, on 15 August 1959, he became the geronda of the Cell of the Annunciation at New Skete. He led a brotherhood of his own, which grew to eighty monks in 1981, and moved with it in 1968 to the skete of Provata. From 1 October 1973 until 1991 he was abbot of Philotheou Monastery. Through his efforts monastic life was renewed in several Athonite sketes, and his disciples also repopulated the monasteries of Philotheou, Xeropotamou, Konstamonitou and Karakallou.

In 1979 he visited North American cities and met the Greek communities of the diaspora, first in Canada (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal), then in the United States, where he was invited ever more often. In the end he decided to move to the United States, for the spiritual nourishment of the faithful and the renewal of spiritual life in the Greek Orthodox communities. He stressed the Jesus Prayer and confession, and many believers sought his counsel.

He devoted his life to mission by founding Greek monasteries in the United States and Canada: the first, the convent of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1989; in 1995 he founded Saint Anthony the Great Monastery in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, where he settled. In all, nineteen monasteries came into being in North America. He passed to the Lord on 7 December 2019, at Saint Anthony's Monastery, aged ninety-⁠one.