Memorial Day of St. Euthymius the Great

Euthymius the Great (377-473) is a saint, founder of the monastic movement and founder of monasteries in the deserts of Palestine Believers called the elder the Great for his loyalty to Orthodoxy and inflexibility against heresy Christians recognize Euthymius the Great as a model of firm faith, hard work and obedience Orthodox and Catholics pray to the saint for help to the childless or hungry The Lord sent down the gift of healing and insight to Euthymius The fame of the miracle worker spread beyond Palestine The sufferers reached out for help, and God, through the hands of Euthymius, performed a miracle • He fed 400 Armenians on their way to the Jordan The crowd came to a monastery where there was no shortage of food, wine and oil Then the Holy Spirit told the elder that the brothers and strangers would drink and eat to their fill And for three months the cell did not run short of bread, and the jugs of wine; • He healed Terevon, the son of the Saracen military leader Aspevet, from paralysis The elder appeared to the youth in a dream, promised healing and called him to the monastery Father, son and a crowd of Saracens came to the saint The monk overshadowed the sick man with the sign of the cross, and his illness left him The barbarians believed in Christ, and the holy father baptized those who came, and then their families;• He delivered Terevon’s wife from infertility, marking the spouses three times with the sign of the cross;• With prayer he cast out the demon of fornication, who left his brother with a cry and filled the air with the smell of burnt sulfur;• He clothed himself in the fire that descended to the altar, and stood in the flames during the service;• He predicted that the keeper of the vessels of the Church of the Holy Resurrection, Anastasius, would become the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and that blessed Sava would become Sava the Sanctified;• He saw the day of his death The saint revered silence in worship, meals and work He taught obedience, patience, constant vigilance of the spirit and its improvement in humility and silence The Lord gave Euthymius life in response to prayers When Christians from Armenia, Paul and Dionysia, swore to give their unborn son to the service of the Almighty, the baby saw the light in the city of Melitina Euthymius was 3 years old when his mother took him to Priest Otrius, and he took him to the bishop The novice rose from the lowest levels of the church ladder to the rank of priest and ruled the monasteries of Melitina for 10 years At the age of 30, Euthymius, leaving honors, chose the life of Jesus Christ The monk’s wanderings led him to the Faran Lavra, where he met the like-minded monk Theoktistus During the fast between Epiphany and Palm Sunday, the brothers went to pray in the Kutila desert, where they occupied a cave in a gorge hidden from view The shepherds spread rumors about the hermits and wanderers flocked to the brothers Near the cave, a cenovia was formed, and later the Lower Monastery Theoktist ruled the community, and Euthymius was its spiritual father Believers wanted to live near the monk and built churches and cells But the saint went into caves at a distance from the monasteries, until a voice from above forbade him to leave his parishioners Soon 11 disciples gathered near the monk Euthymius asked Peter, the church-going Saracen Aspevet, to build a church and cells This is how the Lavra of Euthymius the Great appeared The elder knew the date of his death One day, 3 days before Great Lent, when the elder had to go away for 40 days to pray, he called his disciples He ordered the brothers to create a monastery, showed them where to build cells, gave the last instructions and went to church Euthymius the Great reposed on February 2, 473 He was 97 years old