Archimandrite Ephrem Vatopedinul is spiritual father and abbot of the Vatoped Monastery in Mount Athos, Greece, disciple of the elder Iosif Vatopedinul.
Father Efrem Vatopedinul comes from a poor but pious Cypriot family. He was born on June 5, 1956 in the town of Peristeronopighí in Cyprus, receiving the name Vassilios. He was orphaned as a child during the Turkish invasion.
Being pious, after completing his high school studies, in 1974 he entered the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens. He graduated in 1978 with success and returned to Cyprus where, in 1979, he was appointed a teacher at the “Apostol Varnava” Church School in Nicosia. In 1981 he decided to become a monk at the Holy Mountain, entering the community of Gheronda Iosif. He was ordained a deacon in 1983 and a priest in 1984. In 1990 he became archimandrite and abbot of the Vatoped Monastery, and in 2009 the spiritual guide of the monks (after the transfer of old Joseph to the eternal ones).
In a very short time, Gheronda Efrem managed to restore the monastery from a liturgical and typical point of view, to restore it for the most part, to preserve its old smells and to take care of its entire material endowment. The monastery, which today numbers over 110 monks, has become the largest monastic settlement and a landmark for monastic life in Greece.
