Ephraim of the Great Lavra

Ephraim of the Great Lavra, with the secular name Emmanuel Passalis, son of Photios, was born in 1926 in the village of Maritsa on Rhodes. A good, simple and very humble man of God, he had in the world as confessor the blessed Elder Amphilochios Makris (d. 1970). He came to the Holy Mountain and first went to the skete of Kavsokalyvia, to the elders Michael (d. 1979) and Hierotheos (d. 1968). He entered the Great Lavra in 1957 and was tonsured a monk in 1958. He venerated greatly the founder of his monastery, Saint Athanasios the Athonite. He served the monastery willingly and zealously for years as sacristan, assistant sacristan, reader and keeper of the dependency at Karyes.

He loved the church, the Mother of God, the saints and the services beyond measure. He loved order, decorum, the typikon and tradition; therefore he always had some small complaint about irregularities or omissions. He was an agreeable and beloved man for his kindness and simplicity. His words were unaffected, humble and full of grace. He was zealous, industrious, a lover of services, of good and of virtue. Without possessions, merciful, kindly. He drew inspiration from his compatriot, the great faster, barefoot ascetic Elder Abbakoum (d. 1978).

In 1993 he dictated to me and I wrote: "May the Mother of God and ever-⁠Virgin Mary help us. I have to relate with sorrow of the life of the old fathers and monks who lived on Athos. When I first came, in 1956, the place was indeed as Agapios of Crete, who struggled in Little Saint Anne's, described it in his book The Salvation of Sinners. You saw monks pass along those ancient paths with their animals. Starting from the Lavra, in six hours the mule brought you to the dependency, saying on the way the Akathist and Paraklesis of the Mother of God, with bread and cheese in your bag, to leave at the Hagiasma... They came with a majesty like abbots or bishops, yet full of piety and fear of God. In these simple cells lived both Old Theophilos and Old Abbakoum, as ascetics and hermits, poor and destitute..." So lived also blessed Old Ephraim. He reposed in the Lord on 25 June 1999. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.