The Miracle of Saint Euthymios the Great in Pronia of Nafplio

A historical retrospective, a few years before the Second World War, was recalled for us by the former high school principal of Nafplio, Vasilios Charamis, who remembers hearing it recounted by the older generations.

By Evangelos Bougiotis

It was in the years 1928–1930 when, at daybreak in Nafplio, a powerful storm broke out with heavy rain and hail. It was so intense that disaster soon followed. Tons of water swept along everything in their path. The district of Pronia suffered the greatest damage at that time: the roads — which were dirt roads then — were carved into enormous gullies, almost all the houses were flooded, and the residents, in order to save themselves, climbed onto the roofs of their homes.

When dawn came, the inhabitants saw that the calendar showed January 20, the feast of Saint Euthymios. The vow they made to Saint Euthymios was that they might be saved from destruction. And this indeed came to pass. The residents of Pronia, as one body, had an icon of the Saint made, which they placed in the Church of the Holy Trinity at the heart of Pronia, and since then they honor him every year with the blessing of bread (artoklasia) and the Divine Liturgy.

Venerable Euthymios the Great in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Our Venerable Father Euthymios the Great lived in the time of the reign of Gratian, in Melitene, the metropolis of Armenia, and he was born of noble parents, Paul and Dionysia, like the great John the Forerunner — that is, from a barren and childless womb. For this reason he received the name Euthymios (‘Joyful’), according to the promise of God, when a voice was heard from heaven telling his parents to rejoice, as they were praying that God would grant them a child. After the death of his father, he was led by his mother to Eutroios, the great Bishop of Melitene, who enrolled him among the ranks of the clergy. Because he showed great progress in sacred learning and surpassed all his peers in asceticism and achievements in virtue, he was compelled to receive ordination to the priesthood and to accept responsibility for the holy hermitages and monasteries.

In the twenty-ninth year of his life, he arrived in Jerusalem and went to live with the Venerable Theoktistos in one of the caves of a mountain, where he freed many from grievous illnesses. It is said that he too, in the name of the Lord, fed four hundred people from very few small loaves, who were on their way to the monastery to meet him. Not only was he himself born by the power of God, loosening the barrenness of his mother, but he also made other barren women fruitful and able to bear children through his prayers. And like the great Prophet Elijah, he opened the gates of heaven and healed the land that was suffering from the barrenness of drought. The inner radiance of the Saint was revealed by the pillar of fire which those present saw descend from heaven when he was celebrating the bloodless sacrifice, remaining with him until the time of the sacrifice was completed. A sure sign of the complete purity of his heart and his chastity is the fact that the Saint perceived spiritually the disposition of those who approached to partake of Holy Communion — who among them came with a pure conscience and who with a defiled one. This blessed man, when he reached the age of ninety-seven, departed to the Lord during the reign of Leo the Great.

Saint Euthymios was comely in appearance, simple in manner, fair in complexion, well-proportioned and modest in stature, with white hair and a beard reaching to his thighs. It is also said of him that when a monk was about to depart this life — one who was thought by many to be sober-minded and self-controlled, but in fact was not, being instead licentious — the blessed Euthymios saw an angel wrench the man’s soul away with a trident and heard a voice revealing the monk’s hidden shame.

The first thing highlighted by the hymnography of Venerable Euthymios the Great — composed by two great hymnographers, Saint John of Damascus and Saint Theophanes — is his comparison with the Prophets Jeremiah, Samuel, and Saint John the Forerunner. This is because they too, like the Saint, were fruits of prayer and were sanctified from their mothers’ wombs. This signifies that God wished in this way to reveal the special grace they all possessed and their saving presence for many people through the guidance they provided toward finding God. As one of his hymns notes:

“Though yourself the fruit of barrenness, you appeared truly fruitful, for from your spiritual seed the desert that was once impassable has been filled with monks.”

“From the womb God sanctified you, venerable Father, like Jeremiah of old and Samuel, O God-bearer.”

“As of old a divine angel announced from a barren womb the birth of the Forerunner, so too did he proclaim your birth.”

The hymns of the Church focus especially on Saint John the Forerunner, whose life Venerable Euthymios sought to imitate. His imitation lay, on the one hand, in his sanctified way of life, to such an extent that he is called an “imprint,” an image of the Forerunner — “You became his living image, Euthymios, a baptizer nurtured in the mountains, without possessions, without a dwelling, shining with every gift.” On the other hand, he himself became a different kind of Baptist, regenerating people through his Orthodox teaching in the spiritual baptism of the Church, the baptism of adoption: “You refashioned them as sons of God through the baptism of adoption; for having imitated the life of the divine Forerunner, you were revealed as a Baptist, Euthymios.”

If one wished to characterize the life of Saint Euthymios in a single phrase, it would be what the Holy Hymnographer states: “Father Euthymios, your life is unsurpassed; your faith is truly Orthodox.” Orthodox faith, a life sanctified to the highest degree, orthodoxy and orthopraxy — this is the rule of life for every believer, or rather, for every person who has resolved to worship God in a perfect manner. “Your angelic life became a rule of virtue and a most exact pattern for those who choose to worship God in perfection.” It is therefore not by chance that Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer compares him, among others, to the Prophet Moses: just as Moses, by the God-given rod, split the Red Sea so that the Israelites might pass through to the promised land, so too the Saint, becoming an imitator of his virtue, rent the sea of the passions and passed unhindered into the promised land, the Kingdom of God.

The Hymnographers help us further by showing which virtues Venerable Euthymios practiced, by which he overcame the passions and, by the grace of God, gained His Kingdom. First of all, he longed for the Kingdom of God; then he clothed himself with humility, followed self-control, and pursued righteousness. Thus he was able to detach himself from the allure of this present life, for he shifted the center of his life to what abides and is eternal, out of love for the Lord. There is no other path for any human being. As long as we suppose that life is found in this present world, there is no possibility of truly living the life that is life indeed — the Lord and His grace.

“You despised the things of this life, Father Euthymios, because you longed for the heavenly citizenship; you abhorred wealth, having clothed yourself with humility; you hated pleasure and embraced self-control; you cast away injustice and pursued righteousness.”

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Holy Emperor Leo I Makellis the Thracian

 

By Demetrios Tsiroglou, 
Author – Iconographer

On the occasion of the recently past day of commemoration (20 January) and of this day of coronation (7 February) of the most pious Thracian emperor Leo I Makellis, I take the opportunity, through the present article, to refer to this great Thracian and sainted emperor of Byzantium, as proclaimed by the Orthodox Church. Strangely enough, the wider public is largely unaware of this remarkable man.

He was born in Thrace in 400 or 401 AD and succeeded the likewise Thracian emperor Marcian in 457 AD. His elevation to the imperial throne was foretold by the Theotokos herself through a miracle to Leo, who until then was unknown and insignificant. At her appearance she also revealed the sanctified water of the Life-Giving Spring, better known today as Baloukli, at which Leo, once he had become emperor, would later build the homonymous holy church. She also foretold the healing by him of a blind man, thus making the miracle threefold. At first he served as curator (steward of a household) to a general and was later enrolled in the Byzantine army, being promoted to the rank of tribune,[1] with responsibility for commanding the legion of the Mattiarii.

Prologue in Sermons: January 20

Without Love for God and for One's Neighbors One Cannot Be Saved

January 20

(From the Paterikon: the question of three monks to their spiritual father concerning those who labor without mercy and without love.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The Lord said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–39). These words clearly show that love for God and love for one’s neighbor are inseparable from one another, and that the former is very deficient without the latter. Yet many think that even without love for their neighbors they will be saved, and that it is enough for them to prove their love for God by fasting, prayers, and other ascetic labors that concern only themselves. Such people are mistaken: whoever does not have love for his neighbor does not have love for God either, and thus he can never be saved.

Today, More Than Ever, Saint Mark of Ephesus Is Relevant

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The great teacher and invincible defender of the Orthodox Eastern Church, Mark, was born and raised in the Queen of Cities. He was nurtured by devout parents and educated both in secular and ecclesiastical learning, to such an extent that he was renowned for his accomplishments in both. After progressing through the ranks of the clergy, he was ultimately elevated to the dignity of archpriest and appointed to the high position of Metropolitan of Ephesus. At the persistent urging of Emperor John Palaiologos, he was sent to the Latin Synod in Florence, supposedly for the union of the Churches separated for many years. There, he astonished the representatives of the Western Church with the divinely-wise depth of his words, for he alone refused to sign the blasphemous decree of that Pseudo-synod. For this reason, the Holy Church of Christ has always honored this great man as benefactor, teacher, and unique champion and invincible defender of the apostolic confession.

The Synodal decision of 1743, under Patriarch Seraphim, declares:

“The Holy Eastern Church of Christ among us recognizes, honors, and accepts this sacred Mark of Ephesus the Eugenikos as a holy, God-bearing, and pious man, zealous in devotion, as the most valiant defender and protector of our holy dogmas and of the correct reasoning of piety, and as a follower and peer of the earlier sacred theologians and adorners of the Church.” 

Synaxarion of the Venerable Hierodeacon Makarios Kalogeras of Patmos

 

Synaxarion

By Metropolitan Kyrillos (Kogerakis) of Rhodes

On the 19th of the same month [January], the Commemoration of Saint Makarios Kalogeras.

Verses

You partook of a life worthy of your name, O Father,
having brought your life to completion in piety.
On the seventeenth day Makarios ascended to the heavens.

This Saint was born toward the close of the seventeenth century, around the year 1668, on the island of Patmos. Having acquired the first foundations of general learning in his native land, and ardently desiring to become the possessor of much greater education, he went to Constantinople, where he studied theology and philosophy. Being thus filled with abundant learning and knowledge — or rather with faith and evangelical wisdom — he was ordained a Deacon.

In the year 1713 he returned to Patmos and enrolled himself in the Brotherhood of the Monastery of Saint John the Evangelist there. He founded there, beside the Sacred Cave of the Apocalypse, the Patmiada School, in which he also slept the sleep of the righteous, on the 17th of January in the year 1737, having composed many writings and left them to the Church.

Commemoration of the Return of the Cross of the Holy Apostle Andrew to Patras

On January 19, 1980, the entire Holy Clergy and the people of Patras, under the leadership of the late Metropolitan Nikodemos of Patras, welcomed the grace-bearing X-shaped Cross of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The Cross, which had been in Marseille, France, since 1205, had been stolen from Patras and sent there by the Latin Bishop of Patras, Adelmos, who had at that time seized the episcopal throne, expelling the Orthodox hierarch.

 

According to the archives of the Duchy of Burgundy, the Cross was initially placed in the Abbey of Weaume in Marseille, and later transferred to the Abbey of Saint Victor in the same city. During the French Revolution there was an attempt to steal the Cross, which ultimately failed. Its pieces were preserved and placed in a reliquary in the shape of a regular Cross. 

 

In 1979, the then Archepiscopal Vicar of the Holy Metropolis of France, the late Father Panagiotis Simigiatos, located the Cross at the Monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille. 

 

On October 9, 1979, the then Metropolitan of Patras, Nikodemos, met in Marseille with the then president of the French hierarchy and of the entire Roman Catholic hierarchy of Western Europe, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, to discuss the matter of the return of the Cross to Patras.

 

After consultations between Roman Catholics and Orthodox, the Cardinal said to the Metropolitan of Patras: “Since the Cross was brought here from Patras, it belongs to Patras.”

 

Soon contacts and discussions between the two sides began regarding the return of the Cross to Patras. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece were informed of the matter.

 

On January 18, 1980, an aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force, carrying the delegation of the Holy Metropolis of Patras, departed for France for the reception and transfer of the Cross to Patras.

 

After their arrival in Marseille, the Cross was handed over to the Greek delegation through an “informal” ceremony.

 

The following day, January 19, the aircraft carrying the Cross and the two delegations—Orthodox and Roman Catholic—arrived at Araxos Airport, and the official reception then took place.

 

The Cross, transported in a wooden case, was initially placed in an iron case and embedded in the wall of the Church of the Apostle Andrew, behind the proskynitarion where the Honorable Head of the First-Called Apostle is kept and venerated.

Later, under the current Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras, the Cross was placed in a wooden case and covered with silver-gold plating, adorned with scenes from the life of the Apostle Andrew, and was placed in the northern aisle of the church, which was dedicated to the Cross of the Apostle Andrew and was decorated, like the rest of the church, with scenes from his life, miracles, and martyrdom. 

Since the return of the Cross to Patras on January 19, 1980, every year on this same date the anniversary of the return is celebrated by the Metropolitan of Patras in the Metropolitan Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew. 

 

The Wood of an Olive Tree

As for the type of wood of the Cross, there are differing accounts. Hippolytus of Rome mentions olive wood; Epiphanios speaks of a cross without specifying the wood; Arsenios of Kerkyra refers to a plant without identifying it; while the historian Stephanos Thomopoulos also speaks of an olive tree.

In studies that have been conducted, however, it has been proven that it is indeed olive wood and that it dates to the first century.

There are also differing views regarding the shape of the Cross. Frescoes and portable icons in churches depict the Apostle Andrew on the Cross with its two beams vertical, while others depict him on the Cross with his head downward.

Nevertheless, the prevailing view is that the Cross was in the shape of an “X.” This view is so widespread that crosses in the shape of an “X” are now commonly referred to as the “Cross of the Apostle Andrew.”

During its transfer to Patras in 1980, it was placed in a reliquary in the shape of a regular Cross, but this was later replaced by a larger and more imposing reliquary, this time in the shape of an X. Characteristic of the symbolic power of the Cross of Saint Andrew is the fact that the X, by its shape, is the symbol of the Russian Navy, which has the Apostle Andrew as its patron.

It should also be mentioned that in the summer of 2013 the Cross of Saint Andrew traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, where the scenes that unfolded were striking, owing to the long lines of faithful that had formed. 

 

In 2025, in honor of the 45th anniversary of this celebration, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras issued the followed encyclical:

To
the Christ-named Plenitude
of the Sacred and Apostolic Metropolis of Patras

My blessed children,

Our local Apostolic Church has the special blessing from God, as is known to all, to possess as a source of blessing and sanctification—apart from the Holy Head of the Holy Apostle Andrew—the Cross of his martyrdom as well, which in January 1980 was returned to Patras from the city of Marseille in France, where for hundreds of years it had been kept, by judgments known only to God.

From the day when the people of Patras as a whole, with the Church, political, and other authorities at their head, welcomed the Cross of the First-Called of the Apostles, forty-five years have passed. Throughout all these years we have felt abundantly the blessing and the gift of our Lord through the intercessions of the Holy Apostle Andrew.

We invite you, also this year, with paternal love, to the splendid celebration which will take place in the New Holy Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew, where the Cross of our Saint is kept.

The program of the celebration is as follows:

Saturday, 18 January 2025
6:00 p.m.
Great Hierarchical Vespers

Sunday, 19 January 2025
7:00–10:30 a.m.
Matins – Hierarchical Divine Liturgy

My brethren,

We cannot imagine Patras without the presence of the Holy Apostle Andrew. He is our teacher and our enlightener. He is our father. He is our guardian and protector. He is the unceasing intercessor on our behalf before the Lord.

Saint Andrew is our joy, our pride, our hope, and our consolation. To him we flee at all times, in season and out of season, and we bend the knee of soul and body before his holy Head and his Cross. His holy icon is found in all our homes, and his most venerable figure holds a central place in our hearts.

Despite our sins—which often grieve God and distress our Saint—he does not abandon us, but holds us in his holy hands as his beloved children. His most beloved and most sacred name we give at baptism to many of our children. His Church is the emblem of our city. The place where he was martyred is our pilgrimage site, and there we lead all who visit our city—or who arrive there on their own—for the destination of most is the Churches of our Saint, the Old and the New, where his tomb is found and where his holy Head and his most venerable Cross are preserved.

Do not neglect, therefore, my brethren, on this occasion as well, to come to his Church in order to honor our Saint.

Do not forget or be negligent in directing your steps to his sacred Apostoleion during the two-day celebration, so that you may venerate the Cross on which he was martyred for the most sweet Name of the Lord who called him, and for our own salvation.

We await you at the Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew on Saturday and Sunday, 18 and 19 January, so that we may celebrate together, glorifying the Name of our Lord and honoring our protector, the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

I embrace you with paternal love,
praying for every blessing from the Lord upon you all,
through the intercessions of the Holy Apostle Andrew.

The Metropolitan
† of Patras Chrysostomos

 

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

 

Prologue in Sermons: January 19

On How Avarice and Ingratitude Anger God

January 19

(A Discourse on a Man Who Was Saved from Illness for the Sake of Almsgiving and, Having Repented Again, Died)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In illnesses — and especially severe ones — even the miserly often become generous. Desiring to recover, yet having lost all hope of help from physicians, they, like everyone else, are ready to give up everything, if only they might rise from their sickbed and escape death, so they give alms with a liberal hand. But once the illness has passed, the generosity is as if it had never existed! The greedy lover of money forgets the mercy of God shown to him, grumbles over what seems to him his own prodigality, complains of his weakness of spirit, and is ready for anything — anything at all — only to recover what he gave away during his illness. Such ingratitude toward God is inexcusable! Such hard-heartedness is extreme!

Listen, brethren, to how the wrath of God sometimes overtakes such people, and learn to flee avarice and ingratitude toward God. A certain man living in Constantinople fell gravely ill and, seized by the terror of death, resolved to draw God’s mercy to himself through almsgiving. He distributed thirty litras of gold to the poor, and the alms indeed saved him. He recovered. What, after this, would one think remained for him to do but to thank God day and night for his deliverance? But no! He grieved bitterly over his gold, and the thought of the alms he had given during his illness did not allow him a moment’s peace. Tormented by this, he once went to one of his friends and revealed all his sorrow.

The Ten Lepers (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

The Ten Lepers

Luke 17:12-19

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

We have seen that Christ withdrew from Jerusalem after the raising of Lazarus, in order to avoid the envy of the Pharisees. He went to Ephraim, near Bethel. From there He proceeded farther north and came to the borders of Samaria and Galilee. From there He intended to return to Jerusalem by way of Perea. As Luke says: “It came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

Thus the Lord, intending to go up to Jerusalem to be crucified, found Himself on the borders of Samaria and Galilee.

There, “as Jesus entered a certain village, ten leprous men met Him, who stood afar off.” They remained at a distance, for such was required by the tradition. Since they were far away, “they lifted up their voices and cried out, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us'.”

As lepers, legally unclean, they lived outside the cities. Yet instead of crying out, as they were required, “Unclean, unclean,” they cried out asking to be cleansed from their leprosy and healed by Jesus.