Ephraim of Dionysiou

Ephraim of Dionysiou, a hieromonk, "the humble servant of God," with the secular name Euripides Matanis, was born in 1913 at Mesoropi in Kavala. He came to Dionysiou Monastery in 1949, where he was tonsured a monk in 1950. He was ordained deacon in 1951, priest in 1954 and made a confessor in 1976. He was abbot (1976-1979), after the resignation of his elder Gabriel (d. 1983).

Then, from 1982, he lived quietly, peacefully and with brotherly love in the hut of the Entrance of the Theotokos at the New Skete, also occupied with tailoring. About a year before his repose he returned to his monastery of repentance. Cared for in the monastery's hospital, he was visited by a doctor, to whom, among other things, the blessed former abbot said: "I love death, I do not fear it." Indeed, as our elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra said at the funeral of a monk: "We monks live for this moment."

The same doctor writes of Elder Ephraim of Dionysiou: "A humble servant of God, who filled with a heavenly blessing all who knew him. His immaterial physiognomy radiated such a light of calm that it transformed you light as a bird. And from his humility sprang a wisdom. When I came to the Holy Mountain, I stayed several days with him, talking, of course, about what else? About monastic life, about this inexplicable mystery, which does not submit to the measures of reason, because monastic life is an idea, is spirit, is freedom, is life. His words came from an inner exaltation of a truly religious soul, not from dogmatic rigidity, but spontaneously. Holy Elder, take care of us sinners and send your blessing to our meaningless and conventional life." He reposed in the Lord on 21 December 1993. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.