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THE FEAST OF SAINT EUTHYMIUS AT THE PATRIARCHATE

On Sunday January 20/ February 2, 2020, the Patriarchate celebrated the feast of our Holy Father Euthymius the Great at the Monastery bearing his name, which is adjacent to the Monastery of Sayda Naya at the centre of the Christian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.

On this day the Church commemorates Saint Euthymius, who came from his hometown Melitini to the Holy Land around 420 A.D. and lived in ascetic striving along St. Theoctistos in the desert of Judea between Jerusalem and Jericho.  

Saint Theoctistos founded a Monastery /Coenobion for the beginner monks while St. Euthymius founded a Monastery/ Lavra for the advanced in ascesis monks. Saints Euthymius and Theoctistos were the spiritual teachers of St. Savvas, when the latter came to the Holy Land in 456 A.D. St. Euthymius also worked as a missionary, baptizing the Persians who arrived at his monastery. Moreover, he was a theologian, and a supporter of the decisions of the 4th Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. regarding the two natures of Christ and inspired the Empress Eudoxia and many others to return to the Orthodox Faith.

For his virtue, God gave him the grace of clairvoyance and of working miracles. This luminary of ascesis and of the Orthodox faith was honoured by the Patriarchate in his Monastery with Vespers in the afternoon and the Divine Liturgy on the morning of the feast day, led by His Eminence Archbishop Methodios of Tabor, with co-celebrants the Hagiotaphite Hieromonks; the Hegoumen of Fuheis Archimandrite Ieronymos, the Archimandrites Makarios and Demetrios, Priest Charalambos and Hierodeacon Simeon. The chanting was delivered by Mr. Vasilios Gotsopoulos with the help of the Patriarchal School of Zion students, as the services were attended by a noble congregation of Monks, Nuns, pilgrims and Rum-Orthodox faithful from Jerusalem, Palestinians, Russians and Romanians.

After the Divine Liturgy the renovator of the Monastery and its Care taker Dean Priest Nikitas offered a reception to the Episcopal Entourage and the congregation at the Hegoumeneion.

From Secretariat-General