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The miraculous discovery of the holy relics of St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (May 5th) by abbess Makaria. In this rare video recording, abbess Makaria Desipri (+1999) recounts her experience of discovering the relics of St. Ephraim the martyr of Nea Marki on the site of an abandoned medieval monastery on the slopes of Mount Amomon, near the today town of Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece.
Video source
Read more about St. Ephraim here.
Mother Makaria:
At that moment [the day was the 3rd of January, 1950], I was listening to a voice inside me saying:
“Dig there”
But as soon as the voice was telling me where to dig I was also seeing the place where I was supposed to dig.
“Dig there and you’ll find” the voice was repeating … and was pointing to the place where I should dig.
So I asked a man to help me with digging. He asked me “where am I supposed to dig?” and I showed him the place but he did not want to dig there at all. After I realized that he would not listen to me and dig where I pointed, I told him “okay, go wherever you wish and dig”. However, I had the thought that he would come back and dig where I wanted. So it happened, he went to three or four places but he was not able to dig, because I was there begging that he would not be able to dig where he wanted. He could not dig and he took the decision to follow my words as he was not able to do otherwise.
“Okay, let’s dig here” he said.
As he was digging, I was telling him “take it slow, do not get tired”, though, my real concern was that he might hurt the thing I was expecting. After we reached a depth of almost 1,70 meters, his (St. Ephraim’s) head was found. He was digging really nervously as he was not really keen on it. So, I told the man “thank you very much, go now because you got tired”. He left and I was digging alone with my [bare] hands because I wanted to be very careful. And I found the whole relic [of St. Ephraim]. I tried to remove all the soil and uncover it complete as it was.
A chapel, built of the same stone as the church, protects the dead mulberry. On this tree, the Saint nailed upside down by the Turks endured an even more angry martyrdom. He was pierced at the area of the stomach with a burning torch. It was the 5th of May, 1426.
A series of paintings recounts the martyrdom of the Saint and his revelation.
The grave of the Saint inside the church of the Annunciation receives the pious help of the women’s sisterhood that serves for almost half a century now at the monastery [of Saint Ephraim of Nea Makri].
