Church of St. Ephraim of Nea Makri in Paphos, Cyprus. Photo: paphoslife.com
Thou hast been glorified by the Lord with many miracles, and thou now givest urgent help to those who call upon thee, Holy Venerable Martyr Ephraim the New, Wonderworker of Nea Makri.
On January 3, 1950, Abbess Makaria (Desipri), the mother of all who suffer, as the pious people called her because of her ascetic life, found your holy relics at your divine command, St. Ephraim. Since that time, your miracles have been wrought abundantly and swiftly throughout the whole earth. People lovingly call you “Holy Lightning.” As you yourself mercifully said in one of your apparitions: “I will work many miracles in the last times, that many souls may be saved.”
Mother Makaria wrote in the preface to the first volume of Miracles and Appearances of St. Ephraim:
I would never have written this book if not for the demand and insistence of St. Ephraim himself, who has repeatedly shamed and scolded our faithful for keeping his appearances secret. One of our sisters will confirm this to you as well. The saint wouldn’t allow her to approach his icon, and she heard his voice: “Why have you concealed what I told you about my life?” We have no right to keep silent about or conceal the miracles of the great wonderworker St. Ephraim, who, through his great struggle and terrible sufferings for the Orthodox faith, now shines like a bright sun in the firmament of the Church of Christ.
St. Ephraim continues to manifest himself abundantly and generously to the whole world, so that still more people may learn of the great power of his grace, and so that our Orthodox faithful may be spiritually enriched and imbued with the greatness of his miracles. And may they come to venerate him, that they may receive his blessing and abundant grace.
Here are several examples of how St. Ephraim makes his divine and special presence known to different people.
Dear Gerontissa Makaria! Once, as I was leaving the children’s room, going down the hall, I heard heavy footsteps coming from behind. It was twenty minutes after midnight. Turning around to see who was behind me, I saw a slender shadow and had just begun to think it was you, when a bright light illuminated the room and the whole area around our convent, along with the mountain, so that I could easily make out even the stones lying next to one another. In this shining light stood St. Ephraim the Wonderworker in all his glory, and I heard his voice: “I am the Great Martyr Ephraim!” He was holding a miniature church with four small domes and one large one in the center, with a shining cross. It was our monastery’s katholikon. He repeated: “Makria, Makaria, Makaria! Great Martyr Ephraim!” I’ll never forget that unusual glow that enveloped the entire monastery. Then I heard sweet singing coming from Heaven. Little by little it began to fade away, and with it, St. Ephraim disappeared (1969).
Another testimony:
A girl from Piraeus, who was eleven years old, saw the Great Martyr Ephraim in a dream, who said: “Tell the people to repent so they can be saved!” He also added: “I live up in the mountains, in the Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos, near the village of Nea Makri. I have no home. I want you to build me a church. I am St. Ephraim.”
In the book about miracles of St. Ephraim compiled by the ever-memorable Nun Maria Markella (Frangouly), there are other testimonies from the faithful about how St. Ephraim asked them to build him a church. For example, in Kalamata, some women would go to the Church of St. Marina and sing a moleben to him, to please him and entreat his help in building a church in his honor. The roadside Church of St. Ephraim hadn’t been built yet at this point. “And one day, Mrs. F. S., who was standing aside and watching the others singing the moleben, saw the living St. Ephraim in front of an analogion, praying together with them, although no one else noticed it.”
Inside the Church of St. Ephraim in Paphos, Cyprus
Another time, when Mrs. E. K., who was sick with cancer, was at the Church of St. Marina, her fourteen-year-old son who was with her also saw him alive: “He lovingly approached Mrs. E. K., who was standing at the analogion, and blessed her, making the sign of the Cross over her head, although she herself didn’t feel it. Perhaps in this wondrous way, St. Ephraim wanted to strengthen the saddened boy, who was suffering because of his mother’s illness.”
These and other similar cases lead to the conclusion that the saints rejoice greatly when we sing a moleben to them, and they find a way to show it.
In the main church of the Annunciation Monastery in Nea Makri, which has the reliquary with the holy relics and the mulberry tree on which St. Ephraim was martyred in 1426, an amazing event took place in a special chapel: A certain man, whose brother was dying, asked Abbess Makaria to go to the hospital and bless him with the precious relics of St. Ephraim. His illness was so serious that his relatives had already prepared everything for his funeral. As Mother Makaria recalls:
I was in the patient’s room. His condition was completely hopeless, and everyone was quietly weeping because they knew he was going to die. Then he opened his eyes for a moment. In a choked voice, with barely distinguishable gestures, he asked: “What’s the saint’s name?” “St. Ephraim,” I said, adding: “St. Ephraim will help you, he’ll heal you, and you will come on your own two feet to venerate him.”
A week later, as I was coming out of the church, I saw this man who had been doomed to death in the monastery courtyard. It was the eve of the feast of St. Ephraim, and all the sisters were decorating the church. As soon as I finished decorating his icon with a wreath and stepped down from the chair, a large rose suddenly fell from the wreath and came to rest on the glass over the saint’s cheek. After thinking for a moment, I decided to leave it there, as the saint himself seemed to wish.
The service began. The man who had been healed by St. Ephraim also came. When all the faithful lined up to venerate the icon of the wonderworker, that man approached. As soon as he drew near the icon, something strange happened: The rose, which had been hanging on the icon this whole time, fell onto his head, and at that very instant he heard the saint’s voice: “Proclaim aloud that I healed you!” But he remained silent. Even after St. Ephraim repeated this several times, he didn’t say a word. “Don’t hide the blessing you’ve received!” Even his child cried out loudly, with joy shining on his face: “My papa is healed! My papa is healed!”
This example shows us all an important disposition of heart and soul. It reminds us that in order to save our souls, we must be grateful to God, the Theotokos, and our holy intercessors for their blessings and mercies to us who are unworthy, because gratitude is a Heavenly virtue.
One of the most striking examples of this is the church in Cyprus, which St. Ephraim himself asked to be built. Today it shines as a bright guiding star, a testament to gratitude and a memorial to his miracles in the Paphos area, in the village of Tala, not far from the Monastery of St. Neophytos. St. Ephraim chose a special place for his church, and a man to serve him there, named Raphael Dimitriou. He’s associated with six miraculous appearances of St. Ephraim and six healings from various diseases.
Raphael Dimitrou with Archimandrite Alexios (Englistroitis) from St. Neophytos Monastery
These serious diseases were like six trials. But God saved him by His mercy through St. Ephraim. Raphael’s spiritual connection with St. Ephraim is truly unique. In one of his books, he writes that St. Ephraim entered his life unexpectedly and gave his whole family strength, blessing, health, and great joy. In one of his appearances, St. Ephraim personally called Raphael his child and said: “You are my chosen son.” So people often refer to Raphael as St. Ephraim’s son.
When he healed Raphael, St. Ephraim said: “I’m your doctor now.” This is how Raphael recalls his first amazing and miraculous encounter with St. Ephraim:
The first miracle I experienced from St. Ephraim occurred on January 6, 2019. It all started the year before, when I developed problems with my platelets, and a hematologist in Germany, where I’d been studying and living in recent years, was monitoring me. He tried various types of treatment at first, and then I underwent a course of injection therapy. After eight months of treatment, I told my doctor my liver was hurting. He ordered an examination and sent me for an MRI, where it turned out that 28.7% of my liver was affected by cancer.
That’s when the hard times began. The doctor said I had to start chemotherapy right away. He set the appointment for January 7, but I didn’t go, because St. Ephraim had already worked a miracle for me! At dawn on Sunday the 6th, I felt severe, terrible pain and dizziness. There was a small wooden icon of St. Ephraim on the bookshelf across from my bed, and I begged him: “My saint, take away my pain. I can’t take it.” After a bit, the pain went away, and I fell asleep. I woke up at about 4 AM. I had been dreaming that I was in a clinic undergoing treatment. Suddenly, a tall young man with a beard came in my room and took me somewhere. I asked him: “Excuse me, where are you taking me?” He turned his head and said: “To surgery. I’m your doctor now.” And just then, I woke up, drenched in sweat.
I went to the kitchen, had a glass of water, and went back to bed. In the morning, I woke up with no pain. When I went to get changed, I realized the dream was a miracle. I took off my clothes and saw a cross-shaped wound on my stomach, in the liver area. I immediately realized it was a miracle. I couldn’t believe what had happened!
A few hours later, I opened a textbook to study for my college exams and found a small paper icon of St. Ephraim inside, although I didn’t have this icon at home. So I realized that St. Ephraim was the one who healed me! I decided not to go to see the doctor I had an appointment with the next day, but to go redo my analyses and CT scans at another doctor’s. The other doctor did an ultrasound and said: “Your liver is clean from the outside. Your tests are fine. There’s nothing wrong with you.”
But I still needed to have an MRI. When the results came, I experienced a complete miracle from my saint! My liver was completely clean and absolutely healthy. The only thing was an external wound on my liver, like from an operation! I said: “I didn’t have surgery, but St. Ephraim did it and healed me!” He gave me life! May his name be glorified! Thanks be to him for everything!
Reliquary with St. Ephraim’s stole and slippers
Raphael helped Archimandrite Alexios (Englistroitis) from St. Neophytos Monastery build the Church of St. Ephraim in the village of Tala in Paphos that St. Ephraim himself had commanded. In one of his appearances, St. Ephraim told his chosen spiritual child Raphael that the church would be finished in two years. This was the deadline set by the saint himself. Ultimately, the church was consecrated on October 20, 2023. Its main sacred treasures are the wonderworking icon of St. Ephraim and the reliquary with a piece of his right hand, as well as his stole and slippers. These were all specifically gifted to the church by the St. Ephraim Monastery in Nea Makri. His relics periodically stream myrrh and are very fragrant. This holy myrrh is carefully collected and distributed to people, and they receive various miraculous healings from it.
In 2026, the construction of a small church in honor of Venerable Makaria (Desipri) was finished. Raphael is also involved in this blessed work. With the blessing and commission of St. Ephraim himself, he also published two books about the appearances of St. Ephraim and the miraculous healings he experienced. They also include stories of miraculous help for other people. As the saint himself said: “I will work many miracles that the world might believe and be saved.”
St. Ephraim works innumerable miracles every day and shows us the path of true faith. He brings together people and the holy places where he is especially venerated. This is testified to by a miracle that occurred in Russia, as recorded in a notebook dedicated to his miracles that’s kept at Christ the Savior-Blachernae Monastery in the Moscow region:
The Blachernae Monastery outside Moscow also has a slipper from St. Ephraim among its sacred treasures
My name is Elena V. I live in Cyprus. I learned about the Blachernae Monastery from a friend, and she introduced me to Nun Alexandra (Markova). I called her on March 22, 2026, asking her to pray for my mother. She had been diagnosed with adrenal cancer. All her MRIs, CTs, and other examinations said the same thing.
I asked Mother Alexandra to pray to St. Ephraim of Nea Makri. I prayed at home in Moscow, and my friends prayed to him in Cyprus, in the Church of St. Ephraim in the village of Tala, Paphos, which was built by Raphael Dimitriou at the behest of St. Ephraim. On April 14, 2026, my mother underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which they sent for histology. The results came back saying it was a benign tumor. She went for another analysis, and it also said benign.
By the prayers of St. Ephraim, the tumor was transformed from malignant to benign in less than a month!
I learned about St. Ephraim in Cyprus. I went and prayed to him there in Paphos, in his church. But the amazing thing is that St. Ephraim revealed his miraculous power and brought me specifically to Russia, to the Christ the Savior-Blachernae Monastery, where he’s especially venerated and glorified, where his icons and relics are kept, and where an akathist is read to him every day!
The author, Nun Alexandra, with a woman who visited the Blachernae Monastery outside Moscow to testify to a miracle of St. Ephraim
St. Ephraim’s name is great throughout the world. In Russia, he has become very beloved to Orthodox believers since 2011, when the Church added his name to the calendar of saints. More and more people are now getting to know this remarkable saint with great eagerness and spiritual thirst, and for many he has already become very close and dear. They’re glad that St. Ephraim, the new Wonderworker of Nea Makri, has come into their lives.
Miracles happen every day in our lives. They strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God, so that we might all be brought to repentance and salvation. Where there are unbelief, hardness of heart, or lukewarm faith, and life isn't accompanied by deeds of love and mercy, God doesn't allow miracles to take place.
Our saints are instruments of God’s grace. Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, allows miracles to be worked through His saints because they pleased Him by their holy lives, and also by the martyrdom of their blood, like the holy Great Martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri. God glorifies His saints, granting them Divine grace and the power to work miracles.
The Fathers of the Church say that when we speak a saint’s name, he at once speaks our name before God. Don’t stop praying and entreating Christ, the Mother of God, and all the saints.
