(A.D. 473.)
[Greek and Latin, and Syriac Martyrologies. Authority, his life by
Cyrillus, monk of his monastery, in 543, sixty years after the
death of Euthymius; he derived much of his information from an old
monk who had been the disciple of the Saint.]
There was a man named Paul, with his wife Dionysia, at Melitene in
Armenia, good Christians, loving one another, but childless. Then, with
one consent, they entered into the church of the Martyr Polyeuctus, and
abode there many days instant in prayer, that they might be given a son.
And after this had continued some time, in a vision of the night, the
martyr appeared to them, and said, "Your prayer is heard, now therefore
depart in peace; and when the child is born, let him be named Euthymius,
or the 'Well disposed.'"
Now it fell out, that shortly after the child's birth, Paul died. Then
Dionysia, the widow, took her babe, and went to her brother Eudoxius,
the chaplain or confessor to the Bishop of Melitene, and gave the little
boy to him, as Hannah presented Samuel to Eli, that he should minister
before the Lord.
After that, Dionysia was ordained deaconess, and in due course Euthymius
received the sacred orders of lector, and sub-deacon, and finally was
made priest, and appointed to the oversight of all the monasteries in
the diocese.
Euthymius often visited the church of S. Polyeuctus, and loving
solitude, was wont to spend whole nights in prayer on a neighbouring
mountain. But the love of being alone with God grew upon him, so that he
could not rest, and at the age of twenty-nine, he secretly deserted his
native place, and went to Jerusalem, where he visited the holy places;
and then retired into the desert, near the Laura of Paran,[97] he found
a cell in every way convenient, and there he abode. Now there was a monk
near his cell, named Theoctistus, and him Euthymius loved greatly, for
he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost. "The love of the same
things," says his biographer; "and society in labour, united them so
closely in the bond of charity, and to such an extent were their spirits
blended in affection, that each was, as it were, planted in the heart of
the other."
After five years spent in Paran, Euthymius resolved, with his friend
Theoctistus, to fly into a solitude, more remote. So they went away into
the barren mountains, near the Dead Sea; and there, searching for a
place where they might dwell, they discovered a ravine, down which a
torrent poured, and in the face of the rock was a cave. Then they
entered into it and there they abode, living on vegetables, and drinking
the water of the brook. Now it fell out, one day, that some shepherds
came that way, and ascending to the cavern looked in, and were
frightened when they saw two men, very haggard, with long beards. But
Euthymius bade them be of good cheer, for they were hermits who dwelt
there on account of their sins. Then the shepherds noised it abroad, and
many disciples came to them, and they built a monastery, and Euthymius
appointed Theoctistus to rule over it; and then he retired, loving
solitude, into a remote hermitage, whence he issued forth only on the
Sabbath (Saturday) and the Sunday. He enjoined on the monks to be
diligent in work, and never to allow their hands to be idle. "For," said
he, "if men in the world labour to support themselves, their wives,
families and children, how much rather we, who have the poor depending
upon us."
Having cured Terebon, the son of Aspebetes, of paralysis, which
afflicted one side of his body, Aspebetes, chief of the Arabs in
Palestine, desired baptism, and took the name of Peter. Such multitudes
of Arabs followed his example, that Juvenal, patriarch of Jerusalem,
ordained him bishop of the wandering tribes, and he assisted at the
council of Ephesus against Nestorius, in 431.
He built S. Euthymius a Laura on the right hand of the road from
Jerusalem to Jericho, in the year 420. Euthymius could never be
prevailed upon to depart from his rule of strict solitude; but he
governed his monks by superiors to whom he gave directions on Sundays.
"Do not suppose," said he to his monks, "that you come into the desert
to leave temptation behind you." And then he related to them the
following story. There was in Egypt a man afflicted with a very violent
temper. So he ran away from his home into a monastery, where he thought
he would be free from incentives to anger. But there he was frequently
irritated by the other monks who, unintentionally, gave him annoyance.
So he determined to escape wholly from the society of men, and then said
he, I cannot give way, for I shall never be tempted. So he took with him
only an earthenware bowl, out of which to drink, and he hid himself in a
remote desert.
Now, one day, he was fetching water from the spring, and he upset the
bowl, and the water fell; then he dipped the vessel again, and as he was
going, his foot tripped, and again the water was spilt; he dipped it
once more, but his hand shook, and he overturned the basin a third time.
Then, flaming into a furious passion, he dashed the bowl against a
stone, and shivered it to fragments. And when his anger cooled down, he
looked at his shattered bowl, and said, "Oh fool that I am! how can I
escape the temptation which is in my nature! If I have not men to be
angry with I rage against an earthen pot!"
There was a man in the Laura, named Auxentius, whom the steward told to
attend upon the mules, for "he was apt at mule-grooming." But Auxentius
indignantly refused, saying, he came to the monastery to be a monk, and
not an ostler. And when he constantly refused, on the next Lord's Day,
the steward complained to Euthymius, who sent for the man. Then
Euthymius said, "My son, it is necessary that some one of the brethren
should attend to the stables. Why shouldst not thou do this?"
"Because," answered Auxentius, "I don't like it."
"Alas," exclaimed the abbot; "I see thou art not imitating Him who said,
I came not to do mine own will, I came not to be ministered to, but to
minister."
When the monk still refused, Euthymius said sadly, "Well, go thy way,
and see if self-will will make thee happy."
And presently the man fell ill, and in his sickness his conscience smote
him, and he sent for the abbot, and he said, "I was wrong, I will look
to the mules."
Then Euthymius healed him, and Auxentius did as was required of him.
S. Euthymius showed great zeal against the Nestorian and Eutychian
heretics. The turbulent Empress Eudocia, after the death of her husband,
Theodosius, retired into Palestine, and there continued to favour them
with her protection. Aroused by domestic affliction, the captivity of
her daughter and grand-daughters, and the plunder of Rome, she sent to
ask advice of S. Simeon Stylites. He answered that her misfortunes were
the consequence of her sins, and especially of her having persecuted the
orthodox faith; and ordered her to follow the direction of Euthymius. By
the advice of S. Euthymius, she renounced Eutychianism, and embraced the
Catholic communion. In 459, she sent word to Euthymius that she was
coming to see him, and that she designed settling on his Laura
sufficient revenues for its subsistence. He returned her answer that she
need not do so, and that she must prepare for death. She obeyed, and
died shortly after. One of the last disciples of our Saint was the young
S. Sabas, whom he dearly loved. In the year 473, on the 13th January,
Martyrius and Elias, two monks, to whom S. Euthymius had foretold that
they should become patriarchs of Jerusalem, came with several others to
visit him, and to conduct him to his Lent retreat in a solitary place.
He said that he would stay with them all that week, and leave them on
the Saturday following, meaning, by death. Three days after, he gave
orders that a general vigil should be observed on the eve of S.
Anthony's Day; on this he made a discourse to his spiritual children. He
appointed Elias to be his successor, and foretold that Domitian, a
beloved disciple, who had long ministered to him, should follow him out
of this world, on the seventh day, which happened accordingly. Euthymius
died on Saturday, the 20th of January, being ninety-five years old, of
which he had spent sixty-eight in his beloved deserts.