About the author
Before the beginning of his ministry in the Church, schihegumen Gabriel (Vinogradov-Lakerbaya) received a multifaceted education: university, musical, artistic and pedagogical. In 1985, leaving behind his work and science, he dedicated himself to the ministry of the Church and in 1987 he assumed the priesthood and then the monastic tonsure with the name Ephraim in honor of the Reverend Ephraim Sirin.
For several years, father Ephraim dedicated the restoration of the temples of the Vologda region, and then was appointed viceroy of the Vologda Spaso-Prilutsk Monastery (1991-1994), transferred to the diocese in late 1990. Already in August 1992, the previously destroyed monastery was able to receive within its walls the Holy Patriarch Alexy II, who opened an international conference dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh and Dimitri of Prilutsk in ancient rooms.
After the restoration of the monastery, hegumen Ephraim went out of the state for health reasons and settled in a secluded place of the Vladimir region, devoting all his time to prayer, reading of holy fathers, answering letters of spiritual children, as well as working on his own books, by the blessing of the spiritual father, Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), signing his texts with the literary pseudonym Hegumen N.
In 2003 abbot Ephraim was appointed head of the Caucasian Monastery founded by Viceroy of the Valaam Monastery, Archimandrite Pankratius (now Bishop), and in this capacity remains. Later he was appointed head of the Valaam Holy Trinity Compound, also located in the mountains, but somewhat closer to the Black Sea coast.
In the spring of 2017, under the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Cyril, abbot Ephraim was tonsured by Bishop Pankratius in a great schism with a name in honor of Archangel Gabriel, leaving behind him former obedience.