February 2 / January 20
1. The Venerable Euthymius the Great
Of noble and distinguished parents, Euthymius was born in the Armenian town of Melitene near the Euphrates River, in about the year 377. He was an only child, born in answer to the prayer of his mother, Dionysia, who had a heavenly vision regarding his birth. From his youth he lived a life of asceticism, at first in the proximity of his town; but then, after he visited Jerusalem at age twenty-nine, in the desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, called Pharan. He filled his days and nights with prayer, divine contemplation, meditation, and physical labors. Around him gathered many disciples, some of whom are glorious saints, such as Cyriacus the Hermit, Sava the Sanctified, Theoctistus, and others. Through the gift of God, Euthymius was a great miracle-worker: he expelled demons, healed the gravely ill, brought forth water in the desert, multiplied bread, and prophesied. He taught monks the love of labor, saying: “If you eat bread not earned by your own labor, know that you are eating of someone else’s labor.” When some of the younger monks wanted to fast more than others, he forbade them to do so and commanded them to come to the communal table, so that they would not become prideful
as a result of their excessive fasting. He also
said that it was not good for a monk to move from place to place, for, he said, “a tree frequently transplanted does not bear fruit.” Whoever desires to do good, can do it from the place where he is. Concerning love, he said: “What salt is to bread, love is to other virtues.” During the first week of Great Lent, he retreated to the desert and remained there in solitary silence and divine contemplation, un- til just before the Feast of the Resurrection. During his lifetime a large monastery was established in the proximity of his cave. Down through the centuries, this monastery was completely filled with monks, as a beehive is filled with bees. Euthymius’s final command was that the monastery always adhere to hospitality and that the gates of the monastery never be closed. He reposed at the age of ninety-seven. The Patriarch of Jerusalem was in attendance at his funeral. The patriarch waited all day long until the great masses of people reverenced the body of the saint, and only in the evening were they able to complete the Office for the Burial of the Dead. On the seventh day following his death, Euthymius appeared radiant and rejoicing to Dome- tian, his disciple. The Venerable Euthymius was a true “son of light.” He reposed in the year 473.
2. The Holy Martyrs Inna, Nirra [Rimma] and Pinna
They are considered to be the first Slavic martyrs mentioned in history. They are referred to as Scythians and disciples of St. Andrew the Apostle. They suffered for the Faith at the hands of their pagan neighbors, on the right side of the Danube River, near Varna. Tied up on the ice, Inna, Nirra, and Pinna froze, and they reposed in the Lord.
- Martyrs Bassus, Eusebius, Eutychius, and Basilides, at Nicomedia (303).
- Leo I, emperor of Byzantium (474).
- Lawrence the Recluse (13th-14th c.) and Euthymius the Silent (14th c.), of the Kiev Caves.
- Neophytus of Vatopedi, Mt. Athos (14th c.).
- Euthymius, patriarch of Turnovo (ca. 1400).
- Euthymius of Syanzhemsk (Vologda) (1470).
- Euthymius of Arkhangelsk (1523).
- New Martyr Zachariah of Old Patras in Morea (1782).
- Theodore Kuzmich of Tomsk (1864).
- New Hieromartyr Paul Dobromyslov, archpriest, of Ryazan (1940).
- Ekvtime (Kereselidze) the Confessor, of Georgia (1944).
- The Holy Martyr Anna of
- The Holy Martyrs Thyrsus and Agnes.
- (Greek : St. Peter of Constantinople, tax collector in Africa [6th c.]).
HYMN OF PRAISE
Saint Euthymius
The eye that sees all, the ear that hears all
Travels with everyone,
everywhere they go—
Without changing place,
present in every place.
Where virtue is being kneaded,
God is the yeast in the dough;
Where light is sought,
He gives of Himself;
Where help is cried for,
He is not absent.
Quietly and silently,
but always on time,
He is in time to reap and to sow the seeds,
He is in time to reproach,
He is in time to reward,
To make the young old and to make the old young,
To weed, to trim and to caress fruit—
He comes wherever He wants and whenever He wants.
Whenever a solitary person thinks, behold,
He listens; Where two people speak,
as a third party He hears;
Where the weaver weaves the cloth,
He counts her threads;
He weaves the universal fabric in His mind.
Oh, who knows His footsteps and paces?
Who could enumerate His paths and places?
Eternal and Immortal,
Triune and One,
In the trackless net of the universal fabric,
Unseen and seen, regardless of whence He is viewed,
He cuts out the paths and reveals the direction.
In the trackless net, He looks at all the paths,
And does not allow even an ant to stray.
For eighty years on earth,
St. Euthymius Dedicated such thoughts to Him.
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