Subj : October 15th - St. Euthymius the Younger, Abbot To : All From : rich Date : Wed Oct 14 2020 10:11:03 From: rich October 15th - St. Euthymius the Younger, Abbot d. 898 THIS holy monk was a Galatian, born at Opso, near Ancyra. He is called =E2=80=9Cthe Thessalonian=E2=80=9D because he was eventually buried at Salo= nika, or =E2=80=9Cthe New=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9CYounger=E2=80=9D, apparently to disti= nguish him from St Euthymius the Great who lived four hundred years earlier. Euthymius at his baptism received the name of Nicetas. At an early age he married, and had a daughter Anastasia, but when he was still only eighteen, in the year 842, he left his wife and child (in circumstances that, as reported, look curiously like desertion) and entered a laura on Mount Olympus in Bithynia. For a time he put himself under the direction of St Joan=C2=ADnicius, who was then a monk there, and afterwards of one John, who gave him the name of Euthymius. When he had trained him for a time, John sent him to lead the common life in the monastery of the Pissidion, where Euthymius advanced rapidly in the ways of holiness. When the patriarch of Constantinople, St Ignatius, was removed from his see and Photius succeeded in 858, the abbot Nicholas was loyal to Ignatius and was deposed from his office; Euthymius took the opportunity to seek a less troubled life in the solitudes of Mount Athos. Before leaving Olympus he asked for and received the =E2=80=9Cgreat habit=E2=80=9D, the outward sign of the highest degree to which the Eastern monk can aspire, from an ascetic named Theodore. Euthymius was accompanied by one companion, but he was frightened away by the rigors of Athos, and Euthymius sought the company of a hermit already established there, one Joseph. He was a good and straightforward soul, in spite of the fact that he was an Armenian (says the biographer of St Euthymius), and soon the two hermits were engaged in a sort of competitive trial of asceticism. First they fasted for forty days on nothing but vegetables. Then Euthymius suggested that they should stop in their cells for three years, going outside only to gather their nuts and herbs, never speaking to the other hermits and only rarely to one another. At the end of the first year Joseph gave it up, but Euthymius persevered to the end of the period, and when he came out of his seclusion was warmly congratulated by the other brethren. In 863 he was at Salonika, visiting the tomb of Theodore, who before his death had made a vain attempt to join his disciple on Athos. While in Salonika St Euthymius lived for a time on a hollow tower, from whence he could preach to the crowds who came to him and use his power of exorcism over those who were possessed, while keeping something of the solitude which he loved. Before leaving the city he was ordained deacon. So many visitors came to him on Mount Athos that he fled with two other monks to the small island of Saint Eustratius; when they were driven out of there by sea-rovers Euthymius rejoined his old friend Joseph and remained with him. Some time after the death of Joseph St Euthymius was told in a vision that he had contended as a solitary long enough; he was to move once more, this time to a mountain called Peristera on the east of Salonika. There he would find the ruins of a monastery dedicated in honour of St Andrew, now used for folding sheep: he was to restore and re-people it. Taking with him two monks, Ignatius and Ephrem, he went straight to the place and found as it had been said. At once he set about rebuilding the church and dwellings were also made for the monks, who rapidly increased in number and fervour, and St Euthymius was their abbot for fourteen years. Then he paid a visit to his home at Opso and gained there a number of recruits, male and female, including some of his own family. Another monastery was built for the women; and when both houses were thoroughly established St Euthymius handed them over to the metropolitan of Salonika and went to pass the rest of his days in the solitude of Athos once more. When he knew that death was approaching he summoned his fellow-hermits to celebrate with him the feast of the translation of his patron St Euthymius the Great; then, having said farewell to them, he departed with the monk George to Holy Island, where five months later he died peacefully on October 15 in the year 898. The life of St Euthymius was written by one of his monks at Peristera, Basil by name, who became metropolitan of Salonika. He narrates several miracles of his master, of some of which he was himself a witness and even a beneficiary, and as an example of the saint's gi= ft of prophecy he tells how, while he was in retreat after having been shorn a monk, Euthymius came to him and said, =E2=80=9CThough I am utterly unworthy to receive enlightenment from on high, nevertheless, as I am responsible for your direction, God has shown me that love of learning will draw you from the monastery and you will be made an archbishop.=E2=80=9D-- =E2=80=9CAnd later=E2=80=9D , says Basil, =E2=80=9Ct= he call of ambition made me choose the noisy and troubled life of a town before the peace of solitude.=E2=80=9D The name of this St Euthymius does not seem to occur in the synaxaries and, except for a reference under October 15 in Martynov's Annus ecciesiasticus graeco-slavicur, his existence was hardly known in the West until Louis Petit published the Greek text of the life in the Revue de l'Orient chr=C3=A9tien, vol. vi (1903), pp. 155-205 and 50= 3-536. The life, with the Greek office for the feast, was also published separately in 1904. The reference to the =E2=80=9Chollow tower=E2=80=9D whi= ch he occupied at Salonika shows, as Delehaye points out (Les Saints Stylites, pp. cxxix-cxxx), that Euthymius was at one time a =E2=80=9Cstylit= e=E2=80=9D. See also E. von Dobschutz in the Byzantinische Zeitschrift,=C2 vol. xviii (1909), pp. 715-716 Saint Quotes: Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value. --Saint Teresa of Avila "God treats his friends terribly, though he does them no wrong in this, since he treated his Son in the same way." "Though we do not have our Lord with us in bodily presence, we have our neighbor, who, for the ends of love and loving service, is as good as our Lord himself." --St. Teresa of =C3=81vila Bible Quote: O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert: 9 The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.=C2 (Psalm 67:8-9) <><><><> It Were My Soul's Desire Anonymous 11th Century Breviary Prayer/Hymn It were my soul's desire To see the face of God. It were my soul's desire To rest in His abode. Grant, Lord, my soul's desire, Deep waves of cleansing sighs. Grant, Lord, my soul's desire From earthly cares to rise. It were my soul's desire To imitate my King, It were my soul's desire His ceaseless praise to sing. It were my soul's desire When heaven's gate is won To find my soul's desire Clear shining like the sun. This still my soul's desire Whatever life afford, To gain my soul's desire And see Thy face, O Lord. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .