Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr, Bishop Ephraim (Etherius) of Cherson, Bishop
IV век
Hieromartyr Ephraim (Etherius), Bishop of Cherson — one of the seven bishops who successively preached Christianity in pagan Chersonesus Taurica (Crimea); he came from Jerusalem to Cherson during the reign of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great, continuing the missionary labors of his predecessors.
Hieromartyr Ephraim (Etherius) is numbered among the seven Hierarchs of Cherson — Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Elpidius, Agathodorus, Etherius, and Capito — who successively occupied the episcopal see in the pagan city of Chersonesus Taurica (in present-day Crimea) and labored to establish the Christian faith there. Hierarch Etherius came to Cherson from Jerusalem during the reign of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337), continuing the work of preaching the Gospel among the pagans begun by his predecessors on the see. The martyric death of the Hierarchs of Cherson contributed to the strengthening of the Orthodox faith in this important Black Sea center. Their memory is kept in the Synaxis of the Seven Hieromartyrs of Cherson on March 7/20.