01 — Foundations

The origins of St. Ephraim of Katounakia: the Boeotian village of Ampelochori and the poor, pious world he was born into as Evangelos Papanikitas in 1912, and his journey in 1933 to the harshest corner of Mount Athos, the hut of St. Ephraim the Syrian at Katounakia, where his sixty-five-year monastic life began.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox / Athonite

This section covers the world St. Ephraim came from and the desert he came to. The first file traces his village origins and the ordinary Greek Orthodox world he renounced; the second follows his arrival at Katounakia in 1933, the setting of the Athonite desert, and his entry under the elders of the hut.

Files

File	Description
Ampelochori and the World He Left	Birth as Evangelos Papanikitas in 1912 at Ampelochori near Thebes; the pious peasant family; the unlettered village world; the renunciation of the world for the desert.
Coming to the Holy Mountain, 1933	The journey to Athos in 1933; the desert of Katounakia; the hut of St. Ephraim the Syrian (and the source of his monastic name); entry under the elders Ephraim and Nikephoros; his tonsures and ordination.

See Also

• 02 — Obedience at Katounakia — the elders under whom he was formed
• The Katounakia Cluster — the devotional sources for his early life
• St. Ephrem the Syrian — the fourth-century father for whom his hut, and so his name, was named