HTM(Jordanville) with an elder Savvas

[Barbara]

Helpful information. Thank you, Archbishop Irenaios and everyone else who contributed here.

I hope a lot of people will read this thread because it does have unique perspectives that won't be found anywhere today !

Does anyone happen to know what that GOC-K video was ? It sounded like it exposes fake-elder Ephraim. That would be interesting to post here and on the thread dedicated to him.

That comment about his leaving "Afon" to chase riches REALLY struck me ! It rings so true. It helps one perceive why he succeeded greatly in a worldly context, but on the spiritual side, Fr Ephraim did not make the Elder grade...

[haralampopoulosjc]

From what certain people are telling me, such as Archbishop Irenaios of Texas, Elder Ephraim of Katanoukia was an Old Calendarist his entire life. The New Calendarists are trying to claim all of our Saints as their own. St. Ieronymos, St. Haralampos, St. Nicholas Planas, Elder Joseph etc.

An "old calendarist" yes, because he was an Athonite elder who followed the Patristic Calendar, but from what I've read he started commemorating the Patriarch again in the 1950s, and remained with the commemorators the rest of his life.

From Archbishop Irenaios when I asked him about Elder Ephraim of Katanoukia:

"Dear in Christ Sava,

Let me first say that it grieves me that Orthodox Christians feel this is their best preparation as they enter into the Triodion and prepare themselves for Great Lent, to spend their days upon the internet and cast about for "bombshells" to seek to destroy those who would call them brother.  As St. John Chrysostom said: 

Do not say to me that I fasted for so many days, that I did not eat this or that, that I did not drink wine, that I endured want; but show me if thou from an angry man hast become gentle, if thou from a cruel man hast become benevolent. If thou art filled with anger, why oppress thy flesh? If hatred and avarice are within thee, of what benefit is it that thou drinkest water? Do not show forth a useless fast: for fasting alone does not ascend to heaven.

May God grant each of us a useful fast and perfection in the virtues.

Now, I will speculate that the person who sent this to you did not know Papa Ephraim of Katounakia, and never spoke with him or corresponded with him. I am assuming he bases his charges on the fact that the EP has canonized Papa Ephraim. But we know indeed the EP has canonized Elder Hieronymos of Aegina and St. Nicholas Planas, neither of whom ever acceded to the New Calendar and who are considered saints by the Old Calendarists as well. I can tell you I was in Avlona when this calendar was published and handed out. In terms of spiritual genealogy, Papa Ephraim was a disciple of Elder Nikephoros, but Elder Nikephoros was a severe man and not given to spiritual counsel.  Thus Papa Ephraim corresponded and visited with Elder Joseph, though in obedience, he never left Nikephoros. Elder Joseph instructed Papa Ephraim that after the death of Elder Nikephoros, he was to gather a synodia to maintain the ways of Elder Joseph and his disciples. (Apparently Elder Joseph already foresaw that Ephraim of Arizona would leave the mountain chasing his riches.)

Papa Ephraim did as he was instructed, and one of the monks who came to him on Mt. Athos was a young priest who would become Met. Angelos of Avlona.  Papa Ephraim blessed the then priest Angelos to leave the mountain and go to the Old Calendarists (this would have been about 12 years before he reposed).  This would be odd if he was a new calendarist, no?  Met. Angelos maintained communications with him through the remainder of his life. And while it is true that he reposed in a monastery on Mt. Athos, that is because he suffered a severe stroke in 1996 and was unable to care for himself in his hermitage.  When this publication came out, I specifically asked Met. Angelos (through our Abp. Porphyrios) if Papa Ephraim had been a commemorator of the EP.  He told me in no uncertain terms that Papa Ephraim was a non-commemorator when he was with him on the mountain and for as long as he was within his own faculties, and that this was also true of Elder Joseph, as specifically related by Papa Ephraim. In addition, Papa Ephraim had borne witness that the story that Ephraim of Arizona told of Elder Joseph having a vision to return to the new calendarists (of which Ephraim was the only witness) was a damnable lie.

Now, this is the state of my knowledge of the situation. I believe Elder Joseph to have been a true confessor of the faith at all times.  I believe him to have been a non-commemorator until his death (even if he had departed the Mathewites), and that his memory has been slandered by Ephraim of Arizona to justify his own embrace of the ecumenism. I asked about Papa Ephraim and was told the same from people who communicated with him up to the time of his stroke at least. I do not believe he has been featured in any other publications since 2020. The problem we have (and Met. Demetrios of HOTCA covered this in a video on Ephraim of Arizona and his claims) is that the biographers of these elders have great bias and they write things that cannot be logically squared with other things they record.  For example, they claim Papa Ephraim had a vision that "The Church is in Constantinople" but yet he remained with Nikephoros who was undeniably a zealot confessor (and, as I mentioned, blessed Met. Angelos to go to the Florinites). The bias in these recent accounts make discernment difficult, which is why I can only stand with what had been related to me directly.  If your correspondent spoke to Papa Ephraim and was told differently, I would certainly like to hear about that.

I pray you have a blessed Triodion and may God make a good preparation for us all.

In Christ,
the unworthy Irineos"

Interesting. So Elder Ephraim of Katounakia was supposedly a non-commemorator until his stroke in 1996. It makes sense. Katounakia is subordinate to the Great Lavra monastery. In the late twentieth century, most of the zealots who weren't at Esphigmenou were living in the small sketes and hermitages surrounding the Great Lavra.