Another time, when Elder Nicephorus was returning from Athens to the Holy Mountain, Father Ephraim saw the ship and the traveling elder with the clairvoyant eyes of his soul. He even read the name of the ship, the Semiramis.

But there were also higher fortunes. Divine grace raised him to heights that were difficult to reach for the eye, to other worlds. There he experienced the "ineffable." There was not a single human thought there. When he came to himself, he saw that he was in the same place where he had been, and he thought that on that day all his thoughts would perish (Psalm 145:4).31

But who could answer all his questions? Who could help him advance in the spiritual life?

"What I was looking for," said Father Ephraim, "I found in Elder Joseph. And so, when I met him, he said to me, "I was looking for you, and you were looking for me." The Elder gave me a rosary, a prayer: "Do not ascend to heaven alone! Just try it - you will immediately fall into delusion. And you must go to man: let him teach you how to avoid the wiles of the devil,32 teach you how to ascend to heaven. Elder Joseph was also taught. And Elder Kallinikos taught, and so did Father Daniel.33

Father and mother of the elder

At the age of 86, Mr. Yannis, the father of Elder Ephraim in the flesh, entered the brotherhood to become a monk. (This circumstance multiplied the elder's sorrows, because Father Nicephorus was also elderly, and it is known that old age usually has its own quirks.) For the rest of his life, Father Procopius was inseparable from the father of Elder Ephraim, who was tonsured Job.

With the death of the aged Father Procopius, as Father Ephraim told us, his sorrows increased, because Father Job was intemperate because of his age and loneliness. In addition, he could not get along with Father Nikifor. Father Ephraim became the object of jealousy of the two elders. Father Nikephoros protested when Father Job demanded that he be served and served. The ever-memorable Elder Ephraim told us about this, so that we would avoid taking relatives to us and caring for them.

His mother also became a nun in her old age and showed amazing patience. As the elder told us, in her life the Lord revealed various signs of the intercession of grace, and these signs proved her holiness. Here the saying of the Scriptures is appropriate: "This is the kind of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob" (Psalm 23:6). The blessed elder was always joyful when he told about his virtuous parents, who took on the angelic image before their departure from this world. Remembering his mother, he was especially inspired, because he felt that she had reached the measure of Elder Joseph and other modern saints.

Many times Elder Ephraim saved his brothers and sisters from the great dangers to which they were exposed by the Lord's Providence.

Chapter Two

Discipleship with Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Elder Joseph lived in the skete of St. Basil,34 the highest skete, above Katounak, on the same level as the skete of Kerasia. The kyriarchal monastery35 of these places was the Great Lavra. It was in these desolate places that our Elder was silent.36 There the ever-memorable Elder Ephraim met him.