By Monk Moses the Athonite
Venerable Euthymios served as abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery in the second half of the 13th century, at a critical period for the course of the Orthodox Church and Mount Athos. After the Council of Lyons in 1274, where the union of the Churches was supported, the Latin-minded envoys of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1282) and Patriarch John XI Bekkos (1275-1282) wanted to convince the Athonite monks of the heretical dogmas. This happened around 1279/1280. Unfortunately, some researchers dispute the facts and confuse them with later events, attributing them to the Catalans.
Venerable Euthymios “holding fast to the Orthodox traditions, rebuked the Latin-minded.” Therefore, according to Venerable Nikodemos the Hagiorite, “he was bound with chains and drowned by them in the sea of Kalamitsi.” According to Manuel Gedeon, “they tied Euthymios the abbot with chains across the sea at the seaside, called Kalamitsi, and, having placed him on a rocky reef, the remowned one drowned.”
The twelve like-minded disciples and subordinates of the brave abbot also had a martyric end. In the Monastery of Vatopaidi, the "most venerable monks in training did not give in to cowardice, nor did they submit, but bravely resisted, rebuking their madness with written evidence. Because of their insistence, the impious emperor, ashamed, ordered them all to be taken away to a hillock on the outskirts of the Monastery, and thus by a blessed hanging the blessed confessors suffered death, receiving blessed and eternal life instead of the temporary one; and having plundered and destroyed everything in the Monastery, he laid it waste, and twelve of the learned hieromonks were hanged outside the Monastery… And thus they all received the crown of martyrdom together.”
For their secessionist stance, the twelve Vatopedi fathers “were hanged outside the Monastery on the hill; from then on the hill was called Fourkovouni.” According to the Great Synaxarion, when the Latin-minded “came to the Monastery of Vatopedi and since they were not accepted there either, they began to mistreat the Monks, whom they arrested, because many also fled. Having arrested the former Saint Euthymios and twelve other Monks there, after various tortures and tyranny, they were finally hanged as punishment for the truth which they had shown in not embracing the foreign and alien dogmas which were completely unacceptable to the Orthodox Church.”
We have a more detailed description in a codex of the Vatopaidi Monastery, where it is mentioned that after the martyrdom of the fathers at Iveron Monastery we have that of the Vatopaidi Monastery:
“After this they came to Vatopaidi and they wanted to do the same. The abbot and the brothers with him condemned them for their heresy, both of the emperor and the patriarch. And those bloodthirsty wolves and not lambs took the monks out of the Monastery and hanged them on a mountain, which from that time was called Fourkovouni. Regarding the abbot, whose name was Euthymios, with twelve other learned hieromonks, who bravely rebuked them in person, they hanged the hieromonks, and the abbot, tying him with a chain, they went and left him on a rock in the sea beyond Kalamitsi, which is about three miles from the Monastery, and there he drowned and thus received the crown of his confession. From that time on they called that staircase the abbot's stool. They pillaged everything they found of the Monastery and completely devastated it. And after a few days, when that commotion ceased, the monks who had arrived earlier, fled and escaped death. They found the bodies of those who had been cut down previously, lying on the ground, uncared for and dead, and with many tears and lamentations they buried them, saying the Psalm, 'O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance" and the rest. They buried each one where they found him. These things happened in the month of October in the year 6953, and thus the end came."
In another codex of the Monastery it is mentioned: "This Monastery was happy and enriched with all kinds of goods... During the reign of Michael Palaiologos and the Patriarch John who is known as Bekkos, who, while being oppressed by the Bulgarians, went to Italy, seeking help. They asked them to join them in the faith and they reconciled and received more help and, returning to the city, they came to the Holy Mountain.” The above description follows, which was probably copied from the present codex.
A more recent author states:
“The Sacred Monastery of Vatopaidi: a station of blood and martyrdom. When their proposal that all the monks join the union met with strong resistance, the torture of the fathers began. A body of soldier executioners, without any restraint, subjected them to unheard-of tortures upon order. For the Orthodox faith, they considered it their honor to undergo any inhuman martyrdom. And their greatest honor was to shed their blood for Orthodoxy. Twelve monks, brave confessors, heroes and champions of Orthodoxy, opposed with great vehemence the betrayal of the unadulterated teaching of our Christ.”
The memory of the Holy Glorious Martyrs is celebrated on January 4. The Holy Martyr Euthymios is depicted in a fresco in the narthex of the katholikon from 1819.
Source: From the book Vatopaidi Synaxarion. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
