HOLY MEN OF MOUNT ATHOS - Life of Euthymios the Younger

HOLY MEN OF MOUNT ATHOS:

(From the Introduction):

Life of Euthymios the Younger written by his disciple Basil, who later became a bishop near Thessalonike.

Euthymios, who became a hermit on Athos in the mid-ninth century, exemplifies the type of Byzantine monk who embraced a range of monastic experience during the course of his career and was frequently on the move: after a brief period of marriage, he took monastic vows at a cenobitic monastery on Mount Olympos in Bithynia, then moved to Athos where he lived as a hermit, spent some time on a pillar in Thessalonike as a stylite, founded a double monastery (men's & women's) at Peristerai on Mount Chortiates, and at the end of his life moved to a solitary cave on an island. He was one of the pioneers on the Holy Mountain, where he had several extended periods of residence and tried to bring some organization and more formal liturgical services to the scattered hermits who were living there before the foundation of cenobitic monasteries. Among the noteworthy features of his life is a vivid description of the three years he spent as a recluse in an Athonite cave, subsisting on foraged plants, his clothes reduced to ragged threads, at the mercy of the elements, his body ravaged by vermin. Also useful and important is Basil's detailed account of the foundation of the monastery of Saint Andrew at Peristerai, in which he was supported by generous donations from the local population. The church of the holy monastery still stands today.