13.01.20 – St Euthymius the Great — 1/2
Saint Euthymius the Great (377-473)
St. Euthymius the great: 17th c. painting
on wood at Dionysiou Monastery, Mt Athos
Our great and venerable father Euthymius was a monastic who lived in the latter fourth and the fifth centuries. The
Church celebrates his feastday January 20.
Euthymius was born during the reign of King Gratian in 377 A.D. He came from Melitine in Armenia (now Makatya, Turkey), and was the son of pious and faithful parents called Paul and Dionysia.
Though Euthymius’ mother was barren, his parents prayed fervently to God to grant them a child. Then they had a
vision: they heard the voice of an angel who told them to be cheerful because with the child’s birth every heresy was
going to be abolished and universal peace was going to be granted to the Church of God. For this reason this saint
was called Euthymius (meaning good cheer).
When the saint’s father died, his mother offered him to Eutrojos, bishop of Melitine, by whom he was counted with
the order of clerics. Because he was intelligent in his studies and surpassed all men in virtue and asceticism, he was
forced to be ordained a priest and to look after the holy hermitages and monasteries. When he was twenty-nine years
old, he went to Jerusalem and lived with St. Theoktistos in a cave on the mountain. While he was there, St. Euthymius liberated many men from the terrible chains of disease.
They also say that this saint fed four hundred men, who had come to the monastery, with very few loaves of bread.
Moreover, not only did he break his mother’s sterility through his birth, but also through prayer he made other childless women to be fruitful. He also opened the gates of Heaven, as great Elijah had done, bringing rain during a period of drought. Once a column of light, seen descending from Heaven by the by-standers while the saint was celebrating the bloodless sacrifice, made the internal brightness of divine Euthymius’ soul known. This light shone over
the saint until he completed the Liturgy. A further sign of the purity and chastity of the saint was that he could spiritually see the mood and the condition of those souls when they approached to receive the Eucharist.
Another story about St. Euthymius’ clairvoyance involves a monk who was about to die. This monk outwardly appeared to be a prudent and moderate saint, but in his heart he was lecherous and intemperate because he allowed his
labors to be sweetened with shameful thoughts. So, when this monk at the point of death, blessed Euthymius saw an
angel taking the soul of that miserable monk by force, using a three-pronged spear. Immediately the saint also heard
a voice revealing all the hidden and shameful thoughts of that dying monk.
When Euthymius was ninety-six years old (in A.D. 473), he departed to the Lord. He had established religious
communities throughout Palestine.
13.01.20 – St Euthymius the Great — 2/2
Saint Sebastian, Martyr
According to his legend, Sebastian was born at Narbonne, Gaul. He became a soldier in the Roman army at Rome in about 283, and encouraged Marcellian and Marcus, under sentence of
death, to remain firm in their faith. Sebastian made numerous converts: among them were the
master of the rolls, Nicostratus, who was in charge of prisoners and his wife, Zoe, a deaf mute
whom he cured; the jailer Claudius; Chromatius, Prefect of Rome, whom he cured of gout; and
Chromatius’ son, Tiburtius. Chromatius set the prisoners free, freed his slaves, and resigned as
prefect.
Sebastian was named captain in the praetorian guards by Emperor Diocletian, as did Emperor
Maximian when Diocletian went to the East. Neither knew that Sebastian was a Christian. When
it was discovered during Maximian’s persecution of the Christians that Sebastian was indeed a
Christian, he was ordered executed. Diocletian reproached Sebastian for his supposed betrayal,
and he commanded him to be led to a field and there to be bound to a stake to be shot at. “And
the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin,” leaving him there for dead. Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him. He was shot with arrows and left for dead, but when the
widow of St. Castulus went to recover his body, she found he was still alive and nursed him back
to health. Soon after, Sebastian intercepted the Emperor, denounced him for his cruelty to Christians, and was beaten to death on the Emperor’s orders.
He is patron saint of athletes because of his physical endurance and his energetic way of spreading and defending the Faith. Sebastian is also patron to all soldiers. He entered the Roman army
under Emperor Carinus in 283 in order to defend the confessors and martyrs of his day without
drawing attention to himself. His efforts kept the Faith of Marcus and Marcellian firm during
their persecutions, right up to the time of their martyrdom. He was declared patron of plague sufferers of his reported cures of those afflicted with many diseases.