Ascetic Life
After entering monastic life around 1335, Ephraim made his way to Mount Athos, the center of Orthodox monasticism. There he resided at the Hilandar monastery before moving to Zograf, pursuing hesychastic asceticism in the Athonite mountains.
Around 1347 he departed Athos to become hegumen on an island in the Maritsa river near Plovdiv. He later relocated to Serbia, attaching himself to the Patriarchate of Peć monastery, where he inhabited a cave-church near Visoki Dečani and continued the contemplative life he loved.
Twice Patriarch of Serbia
Ephraim was elevated to the patriarchal throne of Serbia twice, each time reluctantly. His first tenure ran from 1375 to 1379; he succeeded Patriarch Sava IV and was installed on October 3, 1375. After resigning, he was again called to the office from 1389 to 1392, following the death of Patriarch Spiridon.
According to one tradition recorded in the Synaxis of the Holy Serbian Hierarchs, Ephraim crowned Prince Lazarus of Serbia before later leaving the patriarchate to live in solitude. He voluntarily renounced the throne on both occasions in order to return to ascetic life, his second resignation occurring in 1392.
Legacy
Ephraim was a renowned poet who left behind a substantial body of original verse, preserved in a fourteenth-century manuscript from Hilandar. He was proclaimed a saint by Patriarch Sava V in 1406 or 1407, described in the hagiographic sources as occurring seven summers after his repose. Bishop Marko composed both the 'Service to St. Jefrem' and the 'Life of St. Jefrem.'
His name is included among the Holy Serbian Hierarchs commemorated collectively, and his feast is kept on June 15 (June 15/28), where the OCA calendar lists him alongside Right-believing Prince Lazarus of Serbia.
