Euthymius of Madytos
Our Father among the Saints Euthymius the Wonderworker and Myrrh-flowing, Bishop of Madytos
Bishop · Wonderworker · b. early 10th century, Epivates in Thrace — d. between 989 and 996
Commemorated 5 May — Repose of the bishop of Madytos
Euthymius was a monk of Constantinople who became bishop of Madytos on the European shore of the Hellespont in the last decades of the tenth century, and was famed in his own lifetime as a healer and a seer. He was born at Epivates in Thrace and is remembered chiefly, in the wider Church, as the elder brother of St Parasceva of the Balkans — "Petka" — whose Life records that he went first to the monastic state and drew her after him. He is said to have received the emperor Basil II at Madytos and to have foretold his victory over Bardas Phocas in 989. At his repose, between 989 and 996, myrrh flowed from his tomb, whence he is called the Myrrh-flowing; healings continued there. He is commemorated on May 5.
Origins at Epivates
Euthymius was born in the early tenth century at Epivates (Epibatai, the modern Selimpaşa) on the Thracian shore of the Sea of Marmara, west of Constantinople, the son of a pious and reasonably substantial family; his father is named Nicetas. He had a younger sister who is one of the best-loved saints of the Balkans — Parasceva the New, Sveta Petka (October 14) — and her Life, written in the fourteenth century by Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo, gives us most of what is known of the household. On the death of their father, the account says, the mother placed the boy in a monastery at Constantinople, where he remained some thirty years in the ascetic discipline; afterwards, seeking a greater stillness, he withdrew to live as a solitary. His sister, hearing of the call he had followed, left home in her turn.
Bishop of Madytos
His manner of life became known and he was drawn out of his solitude into the ministry: he was ordained deacon by the bishop of Perinthus (Heraclea in Thrace), then presbyter, and at length was consecrated bishop of Madytos — Madyta, on the European side of the Hellespont, in the Chersonese opposite Abydos, a small but ancient see. There he governed with a reputation for austerity of life and diligence in the care of his people, and there, the synaxarion says, God gave him the grace of miracles: lepers were cleansed and the deaf and dumb healed at his hands while he yet lived.
His fame reached the capital. The emperor Basil II (976–1025) is said to have come to him at Madytos — the Hellespont crossing lay on the road to the Asian campaigns — and to have received from him the prophecy of his victory over the rebel Bardas Phocas, which was won in 989 at Abydos, close by the saint's own see. The notice is chronologically plausible: Abydos lies directly across the strait from Madytos, and the campaign brought the emperor into the district.
Repose and the myrrh
Euthymius reposed in peace, the sources placing his death between 989 and 996. From his tomb there flowed myrrh, which the synaxarion presents as the testimony given to the sanctity of his life, and by which he is styled ὁ Μυροβλύτης, the Myrrh-flowing; many sick were healed there after his death. No later history of the relics is transmitted, and the see of Madytos, latterly a small Greek bishopric of the Dardanelles, kept his memory until the Greek population of the district was removed in the twentieth century.
Feast and commemoration
May 5 (church date; Old Calendar civil May 18). The commemoration is Greek: he is carried by the Greek synaxaria on May 5, where he stands after the Great-Martyr Irene, and is not found in the Slavic menaia, which keep his sister on October 14 without a day of their own for him. He has no proper service in the printed Menaion; where his memory is kept liturgically it is with the common of a hierarch.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a hierarch)
The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of continence, O father and hierarch Euthymius; therefore thou hast attained by humility to the heights, and by poverty to riches. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Euthymius would be, and where he is painted is, shown in the hierarch's type: an aged bishop in phelonion and crossed omophorion, blessing with the right hand and holding the Gospel in the left, with a white beard — and, as a myrrh-streaming saint, sometimes with a vessel of myrrh set beside his tomb in a narrative panel. His most frequent appearance in art is not alone but beside his sister Parasceva, in the Balkan and Greek cycles of her Life, where the brother's departure for the monastery is the opening scene. No pre-1900 icon of Euthymius of Madytos alone has been identified for this collection.
Disputed questions
- Chronology, and the dating of his sister. Euthymius is the more securely dated of the two siblings: his episcopate at Madytos and his death about 990 are generally accepted, and a tenth-century bishop of Madytos is a figure of the ordinary historical record. This creates the well-known difficulty in the dossier of his sister Parasceva, whom the calendars conventionally place in the eleventh century (so the OCA), whereas her brother's dates would pull her life back into the tenth. The problem is registered in her entry; it is noted here because Euthymius is the fixed point in it.
- His epithets and the risk of confusion. "Euthymius the Great" (January 20) is the fifth-century father of Palestinian monasticism, and there are besides Euthymius of Sardis, Euthymius the New of Thessalonica, Euthymius the Enlightener of Georgia and Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo — who is, confusingly, the author of the Life of this Euthymius's sister. This Euthymius is distinguished by his see: Madytos on the Hellespont.