Elder Ephraim Katounakiotis and the obedience that made him an angel

In 1933, at age twenty-one, Ephraim Katounakiotis left the world for Mount Athos and settled in the remote skete of Kausokalyvia under three notoriously harsh elders. They never used his name, insulted him constantly, and sometimes struck him. After years of silent endurance he nearly fled, but a spiritual father at Simonopetra Monastery told him: "If you want to be saved, leave; if you want to become holy, stay.

Think and decide." He stayed for forty-five years. The last elder, Fr. Nikephoros, was the most severe, especially in his final illness. Fr. Ephraim tended him day and night while continuing to accept abuse. In 1973, as Fr. Nikephoros lay dying, he called his disciple close, his face suddenly radiant, and said: "My child, you are not a man, you are an angel... bless."

He kissed Fr. Ephraim's hand and died in his arms. The account comes from Fr. Dionysios Anthopoulos, recording a narration by Elder Athanasios of Simonopetra to the brotherhood of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Dovra.