Ephraim of Chersonesus

Holy Hieromartyr Ephraim of Chersonesus was a bishop and one of the seven bishops of Chersonesus who brought the Gospel to the northern lands of the Black Sea, between the Danube and the Dnieper, and received martyrdom in the fourth century.

In the year 300, before the persecution begun by Diocletian in 303, Hermon, Patriarch of Jerusalem, sent bishops to preach the Gospel in several lands. Two of them, Ephraim and Basil, reached Chersonesus in Crimea and planted the Word of God there. Then Ephraim went to the peoples along the Danube, where in preaching Christ he endured many sorrows and labours. When the persecution began, he was beheaded. Only the day of his death is known with certainty, 7 March.

The work was continued at Chersonesus by Basil, his companion, who died a martyr on 7 March 309. A year later the bishops Eugene, Elpidius and Agathodorus came and were stoned on 7 March 311, and later Eferius and Capito. The preaching of these saints strengthened the faith at Chersonesus, which from the beginning of the fifth century became a spiritual centre from which Christianity spread toward Rus. There in 987 Saint Prince Vladimir was baptized.

Saint Ephraim is commemorated on 7 March, with the bishops of Chersonesus, that is 20 March in the new style, and on 28 December in the Synaxis of the Saints of Crimea.