Optina Monastery, Kaluga Province, Russia, October 1, 2026
Photo: optina.ru
Hieromonk Ephraim, a disciple of Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona and abbot of St. Peter’s Monastery in Montana, spoke with the brotherhood of the Russian Church’s Optina Monastery on September 24, the feast day of St. Silouan the Athonite.
Fr. Ephraim, affectionately known as Papa Ephraim, talked with the monks about the monastic life and the inner life, Optina Monastery reports.
Topics included obedience and prayer, guarding the mind and heart, and how to keep the first zeal that brings a person to the monastery from fading amid daily labors. He shared what he’d received directly from his elder and tested in his own experience.
Following the talk, the brothers venerated a cross that once belonged to Elder Ephraim, which holds a particle of the relics of St. Silouan the Athonite.
Thus, on the very day of the saint’s commemoration, his blessing “tangibly touched” the monks.
Earlier this month, Papa Ephraim was a guest at a monastic conference in the Polish Orthodox Church dedicated to the memory of Elder Ephraim.
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Papa Ephraim was raised in Boston and came to the Orthodox faith at 17. After finishing his studies at MIT, he went to Mount Athos and entered Philotheou Monastery, under the spiritual guidance of Elder Ephraim. In 1995, Elder Ephraim brought him and five other monks to Arizona to found St. Anthony's Monastery, where he heard the confessions of monks and pilgrims, taught modern and ancient Greek along with Byzantine chant, and launched the Divine Music Project. He also translated Monastic Wisdom, Counsels from the Holy Mountain, Fire from the Holy Mountain, and My Elder Joseph the Hesychast.
He served as Elder Ephraim’s cell attendant for more than 20 years, then received his blessing to become chaplain and spiritual father to the nuns of St. Nilus Skete in Alaska. Starting in 2023, he spent two years at the Church of Sts. Athanasios and John in Chicago.
In 2025, with the blessing of his spiritual father, he accepted an invitation to become abbot of St. Peter’s Monastery in Montana.
His newest book, The Angelic Life: A Vision of Orthodox Monasticism, gathers Patristic teachings on the spiritual life.
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