Ephraim

Communicating with him was not easy. Syria's state-run telecommunications network has collapsed. Metropolitan Ephraim of Aleppo and Alexandretta was, as Kathimerini learned, in a "secure location" in Aleppo. The advance of the jihadists evoked memories of the beginning of the Syrian civil war, when these forces had turned against the Greek Orthodox.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew invited more than 50 lonely Greeks from Istanbul to celebrate Christmas together with their spiritual father in a family-like atmosphere.

The famed Abbott Ephraim of the Mount Athos Monastery has fallen into critical condition in his 11th day as a COVID-19 patient in Athens' Evangelismos Hospital.