Overview

In every generation God sends His chosen servants to help those who are searching for eternal life.

In the last half century, there was a man who transformed more people’s lives than anyone else in the history of the North American Church. That man was Geronda Ephraim of Arizona. In his honor, Saint Anthony’s Monastery is preparing to publish five volumes featuring the complete life of this sanctified servant of God, told for the first time and mostly in his own words.

Few people outside of the Church know that hundreds of thousands of people traveled from around the world yearning to speak with this Greek Orthodox Christian priest-monk living in the American desert. What compelled them to return year after year was the overwhelming and captivating experience of the divine love overflowing from his heart.

Geronda Ephraim cherished each and every one of the people who came to him. He was a man who had attained the love of God, the greatest spiritual height accessible to man. Beholding the world from that vantage point, his entire desire was to share this love with everyone, to teach us how to find God within ourselves.

It is impossible to fully describe the revitalization that occurred among the multitudes that streamed to him. Every day since the early 1960s Geronda Ephraim took upon his own shoulders the suffering and sorrows of each person who confided in him. He sat patiently with them in confession and unburdened their souls, dispersing the darkness of despair with the light of eternal hope. With the clairvoyant eyes of his heart he knew in detail the entire life story of everyone who came to him. Often before they even said a word, he would reveal to them their secret sins and repressed traumas, healing the wounded souls of these people as they gazed at him in astonishment, their eyes streaming with tears of thanksgiving and joy.

Miracles poured forth at his prayers: Thousands were healed of cancers and diseases; barren women conceived; prophecies came to pass. Many witnessed spiritual light and heavenly fragrance pouring forth from his person while they marveled at the purity of his soul. They left his presence joyful, renewed in love, and ready to confront life’s difficulties with the grace they received from God. They returned to their homes truly reborn as spiritual children of one of the greatest spiritual fathers in the history of the Church.  

To ensure that his salvific work would continue after his passing away to the next life, Geronda Ephraim founded 17 monasteries throughout North America. To this day, faithful Christians year after year make their pilgrimages to the monasteries to find peace in their hearts and salvation for their souls.

Now, three years after his passing, we wish to share with you the life story and teachings of this miraculous healer of souls.

Γιὰ τὴν Ἑλληνικὴ ἔκδοση πατήστε ἐδῶ

 Click here to download a PDF of sample pages from the book

Impact

Considering all of the experiences we monks have had from living for many years with this wonder-working man of God, you can see why we’re enthusiastic to share his story. The books we are hoping to publish show people how to enter into a living communion with God. That is why the impact of sharing Geronda Ephraim’s life and teachings with the world cannot be measured.

The favorable reaction of our proofreaders gives us a hint of how powerful the impact will be when people read Geronda Ephraim’s life story. So please read on and we’ll show you what we’ve done so far . . . and also what we need you to help us with.

What We Need: Help with the Costs

This is our first crowdfunding campaign. Deciding how many books to print was a real challenge.

Many people have been eagerly asking us when we plan on publishing the book of Geronda Ephraim’s life story. They in turn are telling their friends about the project. And this is exactly how you can help us: We need you to help us get the word out about this crowdfunding campaign so that everyone can get these books.

Knowing that Geronda Ephraim was loved by so many people, and sensing the excitement in the air about the project, we realized that there will be a high demand for these books. But we also realized that we do not have the funds to print the large number of books needed.

We could have slightly reduced the cost of each book by using cheaper materials. But we decided to use the highest quality materials, in honor of our spiritual father, and also to give you the best quality product, while keeping the price of the books as low as possible for you.

We decided on 30,000 books for the first printing. We started by raising $178,000 on our own for the paper costs. Now we need your help to raise $292,000 or else we won’t be able to print these books. By choosing perks and sharing this campaign with others through social media, you will help bring these books to publication.

What You Get: The Books (and our Heartfelt Prayers of Gratitude)

Each part of the project has its own “perk” you can pick to help the project succeed . . . and of course you will also receive the books:

• Geronda Ephraim of Arizona: The 5 Volume Box Set (hardcovers) $130
• Sent by God: The Life of Geronda Ephraim of Arizona (hardcover) $48
• Sent by God: The Life of Geronda Ephraim of Arizona (softcover) $34
• Spirit and Truth: On Prayer and Watchfulness (hardcover) $34
• Spirit and Truth: On Prayer and Watchfulness (softcover) $24

You may also place a separate donation towards the project by pressing the “Back It” button above. Your help above and beyond the price of the books will allow us to expand the project into the future to include additional printings, foreign language editions, and those wonderful forthcoming editions of all the stories that everyone will be sending to us once they hear that the Life is finally being published.

Risks & Challenges

Saint Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery is a nonprofit organization that has been publishing books for 25 years. With over 50 titles in our catalog, this is by far the most monumental publishing project that we’ve ever undertaken. We have a lot of experience with publishing books, and so we know the risks and challenges . . . but we have also learned by experience how to overcome them.

Every well-intentioned book project risks stalling. Some books never get written. Then there are those manuscripts that sit unedited on a shelf for years. Others never reach the point of being laid out in book format. And still others never find a publisher or the funds to turn the project into actual printed books.

The Geronda Ephraim of Arizona Book Project began three years ago, and with your generous help, we hope that we are just a few months away from going to press.

The Project’s Progress

Getting these books from our hearts into your hands

  Stage One | Genesis (2 years)

Hundreds of hours of audio tapes of Geronda Ephraim’s homilies are transcribed. Dozens of his spiritual children are interviewed or write to us with their stories. Piles of photographs are sifted through and digitized.

   Stage Two | Editing (1 year) We are currently here 

The Greek text is translated into English; both language editions are created simultaneously. A team of editors polish the text and pass it on to proofreaders who get a sneak peek.

  Stage Three | Contract (3 weeks)

Having successfully raised all the funds (thank you!) the purchase order with the print shop is created. Because of the complexity of the job, several top execs and a team of plant managers scrutinize drafts of the purchase order for the job to make sure no detail is overlooked. The final draft is approved and signed by the monastery and the plant.

  Stage Four | Paper (12 weeks)

The paper is ordered from the mill. This year there is an unprecedented twelve-week delay in the mills getting paper to print shops. While waiting patiently . . .

  Stage Five | Layout (8 weeks)

. . . all texts and images for the 5 volumes are laid out in book format. Layout and graphic artists work together with the monks to produce the book designs.

  Stage Six | Printing (12 weeks)

The files are sent in to the print shop. Then, after the printers carefully review the files, when everything checks out, there is an eight week scheduling delay in getting the job on the presses. Book sales are at a record high and print shops are backed up.

  Stage Seven | Inspection (1-3 weeks)

Most book publishers skip this important stage: we have the printing plant ship us dozens of randomly selected printed copies of all five volumes. We carefully inspect every page for printing press smudges and splotches, photographs and graphics are examined for color accuracy. This process can take up to a week, and if any printing errors are discovered, then back to stage six. Any sections with printing errors are reprinted—which can take up to two weeks.

  Stage Eight | Binding (4 weeks)

Gluing books is fast and cheap, but it’s not the most durable method. For our project we chose the highest quality book binding available. Every book—softcover editions included—will be bound using archival Smyth sewing, a method that also allows your books to comfortably lay flat. Sewing books takes longer, and then they have to be bound to the covers.

  Stage Nine | Shipping (1 week)

Finally, the books pass through quality control before being boxed. Once boxed they will end up at a fulfillment center in Texas.

If by God all goes well, the job will run on a 34-week schedule. Our goal for delivery of the books is the end of April. But we must reach our funding goal in 30 days (with your help we can make it!).

If We Don’t Reach Our Funding Goal

With this fundraising campaign we will need to raise the whole sum in 30 days here on Indiegogo, or the project will not continue as planned. If we don’t reach the funding goal, then you will receive a complete and full refund of your donation. We will continue looking for other ways of getting the books printed.

We kindly ask that you contribute to this project only through this Indiegogo campaign page, rather than through our monastery’s website, so that we can accurately track how close we are to reaching our publishing goal. And regardless of whether or not you decide to fund the campaign and receive the books, everyone can help by sharing this campaign on social media.

A Brief Biography

Ioannis Moraitis, the future Geronda Ephraim, was born in Volos, Greece, on June 24, 1928. His mother was a holy ascetic, spending her nights praying with tears and countless prostrations, thus setting an example for her son. He soon conceived a divine desire to be a monk on the Holy Mountain, a desire that was realized in 1947 when he became a disciple of Saint Joseph the Hesychast, the great teacher of noetic prayer.  Within nine months he was tonsured as a monk, and several years later he was ordained to the priesthood. For his perfect obedience, Father Ephraim was granted the gift of prayer of the heart and received the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

After Saint Joseph fell asleep in the Lord in 1959, Geronda Ephraim’s virtuous life attracted many monastic aspirants. Because of the rapid growth of his brotherhood, in 1968 they moved to the spacious Skete of Provata. Several years later he was asked to assume the abbacy of Philotheou Monastery and also to repopulate the monasteries of Konstamonitou, Xeropotamou, and Karakalou, and especially to undertake the spiritual leadership of these ancient citadels of Orthodoxy, which had fallen into decline.

Through his all-night vigils, ceaseless noetic prayer, spiritual visions, and daily celebration of the Divine Liturgy, Geronda Ephraim was sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Beholding the Uncreated Light of God countless times over the next fifty years, he entered into theosis, the state of perfect (as far as possible in this life) union with God. He often experienced ecstasy of soul and was taken up into Paradise, where he participated in the angelic choir and conversed with the saints. With the illuminated eyes of his spirit, he could see the state of people’s souls, their hidden thoughts, and their secret sins. Innumerable miraculous healings of both body and soul occurred through his prayers. These sacred gifts contributed to making him a celebrated spiritual father confessor and one of the greatest consolers of souls in these most difficult times.

But above all, Geronda Ephraim received the gift of the love of God, and he sacrificed himself continually to give this love to others. Thus, in the 1980s, by the entreaty of the Orthodox faithful and with the blessing of the Greek Orthodox bishops, he began the arduous yet vital work of establishing monastic communities in North America, an undertaking that he continued after his final move in 1995 to Saint Anthony’s Monastery in Florence, Arizona. Multitudes flocked to him from around the world for Holy Confession and for solutions to their agonizing problems. Before his arrival there were no monasteries in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. By God’s grace Geronda Ephraim founded seventeen, choosing abbots and abbesses for most of them from the sixteen monasteries under his leadership in Greece. Today these North American monasteries total nearly three hundred monks and nuns.

By the time he departed to the next life on December 7, 2019, Geronda Ephraim had transformed the Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere by restoring the Sacred Tradition of the Holy Fathers to a people in diaspora. His monumental contribution to the Orthodox Church continues by his holy prayers and guidance from above and through the legacy he bequeathed to his spiritual children to the best of their ability.