The Shepherd, January 2009
THE COMING MONTH
IN the Church Year, unlike the civil year, January is not the first month, but nonetheless it is resonant with thoughts of newness. We begin the month with the feast of the Saviour’s Circumcision, in which we see the new Baby receiving His name. We have the Great Feast of the Theophany - the Baptism of the Saviour, - through which our own Baptism is inaugurated, through which again we are granted newness of life. It is for this reason that this month we have chosen quotations “From the Fathers” which tell us the Orthodox teaching concerning Baptism. And then in the month we have a host of the greatest ascetic saints, who, by their manner of life, show us a new way of life, one almost unprecedented in the vigour of its application to seeking rather the Kingdom of Heaven.
Among these ascetic saints, one of the greatest is our Venerable Father Euthymius the Great of Palestine (20th January / 2nd February). It may be said that what St Antony the Great, who celebrates three days earlier, was to Egypt, St Euthymius was to Palestine. He filled the Palestinian deserts with monastic fathers. However, he was not a native of Palestine. St Euthymius was born in Melitene of Armenia. His parents had for a long while been childless, and he was born as the fruit of their fervent prayers. When he was three years old, his father died and his widowed mother placed him in the care of the Bishop Otreius so that he might be educated. This Bishop baptized him, and later, seeing how gifted he was, he ordained him a reader. The young saint began to visit the monks in the area and to learn from them, and adopted the custom of spending the time between Theophany and Pascha in solitude and prayer, living in the desert regions of that area. Because of his remarkable virtues, he was ordained to the priesthood at the extraordinarily young age of nineteen, and was given charge of the monasteries within the diocese. He shouldered this responsibility for twelve years, but realizing that the respect in which he was held could cause him spiritual harm, he fled to the Holy Land. Near St Chariton’s Lavra at Faran, he founded a cell and, freed now of his responsibilities, devoted himself to prayer and fasting. He developed a close spiritual bond with another ascetic living there, Father Theoctistus. They became, as it was said, like one soul in two bodies. Every Lent they went out into the far desert in the Dead Sea area. Here they found a cave in the Wadi Mukellik in which they chose to dwell, transforming it into a church and monastic kellion. Here they lived for some time in complete isolation, until they were discovered by some shepherds. The renown of them spread and people from the village began to support them by bringing them provisions. Monks and those aspiring to be monks also came. As the cave was not situated in a place suitable for the founding of a monastery, St Euthymius stayed in the cave, and they founded a community at the bottom of the cliff which was directed by Fr Theoctistus. One of the leaders of the Bedouin, Aspebet, had a son who was ailing. Prompted by a vision, he brought the boy to St Euthymius, who healed him with the sign of the Cross. Thus this sheikh and his men were converted and became Christians, and a wider mission was begun among the Bedouin tribesmen. The miracle also brought St Euthymius great renown and, as people sought him in great numbers, he decided to move yet again - this time to Rouba. He left Fr Theoctistus in charge of the earlier foundation, despite the latter’s entreaties, and set out with only one helper, Domitian. Again and again, because of his renown he was forced to move, but each time he founded monastic communities and so populated the desert with monks. It is said that when the Saint celebrated the Divine Liturgy a fire from heaven spread over the sanctuary and covered him and his deacon Domitian. Despite their own poverty, the Saint always urged the brethren to show hospitality generously. On one occasion a company of 400 Armenians arrived at his monastery and their stores were empty, and yet, through the prayers of the Saint, they found the pantry miraculously full and were able to feed them all. He is perhaps best known for his staunch defence of Orthodox teaching, and in this he has been an example to monastics of every generation. His disciples, in obedience to him, attended the two Holy and Œcumenical Councils of Ephesus (431 A.D) and Chalcedon (451 A.D.). Following the latter council, one Theodosius usurped the patriarchal throne of Jerusalem and disseminated heretical ideas. Because of his position (as the official Church), he was able to lure many into the Monophysite heresy. Saint Euthymius and his followers withstood him stoutly, even though for doing so they were accused of leaning towards the opposite heresy of Nestorianism. Their firmness and the evident sanctity of Euthymius little by little won people back to Orthodoxy. The Empress Eudocia was living in Palestine and she, for a period, was drawn towards Monophysitism, but a series of troubles in her personal life brought her to understand that she had erred. She appealed to St Simeon the Stylite for guidance, and he instructed her. “Why do you send so far [to Syria] to draw water,’ he asked, “when you have a fountain so near at hand? You have the Godbearing Euthymius. Follow his teachings and you will be saved.” Among the glorified immediate disciples of this Great Euthymius, we have Saints Sabbas the Sanctified, Cyriacus, and Gerasimus of the Jordan, and many of the Bishops who defended the Orthodox Faith. Foreknowing the time of his departure from this life, Saint Euthymius made provision for the well-ordering of the monastery, and during the Vigil for the feast of Saint Antony, he exhorted them to remain steadfast in sincere love, and even presided over the election of his successor. He then spent three days in quiet and gave up his soul on 20th January, 473 A.D. Domitian, who had been his disciple for over fifty yeas and his deacon, died a few days later. At the entombment of the Saint, many monastics and lay people from all over Palestine gathered, and many miracles took place then and subsequently at his tomb. We are blessed here at Brookwood to have a bone from the relics of one of the fathers (unknown) of the saint’s monastery.
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