Our Holy Father, the Martyr Euthymius.

Commemorated March 22 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

Born in the village of Dimitsana in the Peloponnese, he lived as a Christian as a boy, but later went to Romania and there gave himself over to great debauchery. In this debasement, the evil spirit led him to embrace Islam. No sooner had he done so than he began to repent bitterly. He returned to the Christian faith and became a monk on the Holy Mountain. After several years spent in strict fasting and prayer, he made up his mind to die for Christ. With the blessing of his spiritual father, he went to Constantinople, where he somehow succeeded in gaining access to the Grand Vizier. He began to make the sign of the Cross in front of him, to praise Christ and to denounce Mahomet. After long-drawn-out torture, he was condemned to death and was slain on March 22nd, 1814, on Palm Sunday. Many miraculous hearings of the sick were wrought through his relics. His precious head is in the Russian monastery of St Panteleimon on the Holy Mountain. Thus this twenty-year-old youth first died to Christ and then died for Christ.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK