Ephraim of Perekom

Venerable Ephraim of Perekom (Eustathius, in the world) founded the Perekom Monastery near Novgorod. He was born on 20 September 1412 and reposed on 26 September 1492. The Russian Church canonized him among the venerable fathers at the second Council of Makary in 1549, for veneration in the whole Church. He is commemorated on 16 May (translation of relics) and 26 September, by the old calendar.

He was born in 1412 into the family of the Kashin merchant Stephen and his wife Anna. At baptism he received the name Eustathius. Having in his youth an inclination for monastic life, when his parents wanted him to marry, he went as a novice to the monastery at Kalyazin, to Venerable Macarius. Soon his parents too entered monastic life. After three years as a novice with Macarius, he moved to the monastery of Savva of Vishera and in 1437 received tonsure from Savva of Vishera with the name Ephraim.

Around 1450 he left the monastery and went to Lake Ilmen, to the mouth of the river Verenda (today the Veronda). There, on the bank of the river Chernaya, he made himself a cell. Soon a community of monks began to form around him. At the brethren's request Ephraim became their abbot and around 1450 received ordination as hieromonk from Archbishop Euthymius of Novgorod. On his return to the hermitage he built a church in honour of the Theophany of the Lord. The monastery had no water, and the monks, under Ephraim's direction, dug a channel from Lake Ilmen, from which the monastery was called Perekopsk (or Perekom), that is of the cut channel.

Ephraim built in the monastery a stone church in honour of Saint Nicholas the Hierarch. For its building he turned to the grand prince Vasily, who sent masons. The building was completed in 1466. The source mentions a prince named Vasily Ivanovich, but in 1466 a different grand prince reigned, so the name does not fit the year.

Ephraim reposed on 26 September 1492 and was buried in the church of Saint Nicholas. In 1509, because of frequent floods, his monastery was moved to a new site, through the labours of Venerable Roman, the disciple of Ephraim of Perekom. All the churches were taken down. Ephraim's relics were moved to the new monastery, and a chapel was set over the grave. In 1549, in the time of Metropolitan Macarius, Ephraim was canonized. His relics are kept in the monastery he founded.