On Elder Euthymios of Esphigmenou (+1999)

 

ON ELDER EUTHYMIOS OF ESPHIGMENOU (+1999)

 

In the apocalyptic times we live in, where the devil, like a roaring lion, tries, the wretched one, to dissolve our Church, and the world remains stunned seeing on the television screens the arrogant Cypriot abbot [of Vatopedi] being led by praetorians like a common criminal to Korydallos, we dare to present, requesting his prayers, another, different Cypriot abbot: simple, little-educated, gentle, a fervent intercessor of the Elderess of Mount Athos [the Theotokos] and a comforter of all who approached him, both new calendarists and old calendarists. The great heart of the elder accommodated everyone indiscriminately.

Besides, the Holy Mother of God had him under her protection from childhood. And from the time he lost his beloved mother at the age of eleven, he would say to himself: "Now you don't have a mother like the other children, but you have a great Mother in the heavens, the Holy Mother! Pray that she may deem you worthy to become a Monk" (Recollections of Elder Euthymios, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou, 1975-1999, Published by I.M. Esphigmenou, Mount Athos, 2001, p. 8).

The blessed Elder Paisios, an old monk of Esphigmenou, held Elder Euthymios in high regard, and this is evident from the two incidents that will be mentioned subsequently.

First, in the 1980s, an Orthodox American visiting Mount Athos met Father Paisios and asked him what he thought of Father Euthymios. Elder Paisios replied that he was a holy elder.

Second, in the 1990s, students of Athoniada School visited, as they usually did, Father Paisios in his cell, and among other things, they told him that they were forbidden to visit the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou because it was considered "schismatic." The blessed elder interrupted them, telling them that once Father Euthymios had gone down to the small harbor while making a prayer rope, and suddenly the monks lost sight of him. He reappeared the next day, and they learned that angels had taken him to Athos, and he met the invisible ascetics. Elder Paisios concluded by telling them that he himself had once tried to meet them, and when he saw one of them and tried to approach him, pretending he had lost his way, the ascetic disappeared, saying to him: "Let it go, Paisios" (personal testimony of theologian K.A.G. to the writer).

But the testimony of General O.G., a fervent supporter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is also remarkable. I had called him about a year ago to complain about the scandalous tolerance shown by the Patriarchate towards the Cypriot abbot who was already in pretrial detention in Korydallos. After the general admitted that the Patriarchate could not control him, he continued by saying that of all the Athonite abbots he knew, only Elder Euthymios of Esphigmenou was truly a man of God.

Ending this simple tribute to the blessed elder, my compatriot and fellow villager, I will also mention a personal experience of mine. In 1990, a lawyer friend from Athens called me, worried, asking me to urgently contact the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou and report to the abbot, Father Euthymios that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs planned to soon expel all the monks of Esphigmenou. Indeed, I immediately contacted the elder who, undisturbed, after hearing what I told him, said to me that Our Holy Mother protects us. Indeed, the Holy Mother protects the worldly weak and "despised" martyric Monastery of Esphigmenou. And as long as it upholds Orthodoxy, it will have this protection, and the holy abbots of the Monastery, the great Saint Gregory Palamas and Elder Euthymios, will be its heavenly intercessors!

Elder Euthymios, intercede for us sinners!

M.P. [Marios Pilavakis]

December 28, 2011

Commemoration of the Holy Ten Thousand Martyrs who were burned in Nicomedia. Martyr Glykerios.

 

Original Greek: https://orthopraxiaa.blogspot.com/2019/12/1999.html