THE FEAST OF SAINT EUTHYMIOS THE GREAT AT THE PATRIARCHATE – Jerusalem Patriarchate

On Monday, the 20th of January / 2nd of February 2026, the Patriarchate celebrated the memory of our Father among the Saints Euthymios the Great at the Holy Monastery dedicated to his name, adjoining the Holy Monastery of Our Lady of Sayda Naya, to the north of the Old City of Jerusalem.

On this feast, the Church commemorates that Saint Euthymios brought gladness to his parents, having been granted to them as a gift, as they were childless for years. He originated from Melitene in Armenia. Having been orphaned at the age of three, he was entrusted to his uncle Eudoxios and subsequently to Otreios, Bishop of Melitene. Under their guidance, he was instructed in the sacred letters and was ordained as a Priest. He first practised asceticism in a monastery of his homeland and thereafter departed for the Holy Land, arriving in Jerusalem in the year 406. He initially practised asceticism in the desert of ‘Ain Fara, in the Lavra of Saint Chariton. Subsequently, together with Saint Theoktistos, he withdrew to the desert of Kutila, where they lived in absolute asceticism, solitude, and prayer. At the entreaty of monks, they founded a cenobitic monastery for novice monks, the supervision and care of which was entrusted especially to Saint Theoktistos, and a Lavra for monks advanced in ascetic practice, wherein their virtuous and exact manner of life attracted a multitude of monks and Christians seeking their spiritual guidance.

Saint Euthymios and Saint Theoktistos served as the spiritual teachers of Saint Sabbas. When Saint Sabbas came to them, he was still a novice and a young, beardless monk. For this reason, Saint Euthymios sent him to the Cenobium of Saint Theoktistos, where for many years he was guided and instructed by them.

Saint Euthymios carried out missionary and priestly work, receiving in the year 420 nomadic Arab-Saracens under Aspevestos Peter, for whose ordination as Bishop of the Camps Saint Euthymios interceded with the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In the year 429, Patriarch Iouvenalios of Jerusalem consecrated the Lavra of Saint Euthymios. Saint Euthymios was revealed as a beacon of the monastic life and restored the Empress Eudocia to Orthodoxy. He was granted the gifts of spiritual discernment and wonderworking. The ruins of his Lavra are preserved to this day since its destruction by the Persians in the year 614.

At his Holy Monastery in Jerusalem, Vespers was celebrated in the evening and the Divine Liturgy in the morning, presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Dorotheos of Avila, with concelebrants the Archimandrites Makarios, Philoumenos, and Amphilochios, the Priests Farah and Nikolaos, and Hierodeacon Prodromos. The chanting was delivered by Archimandrite Simeon and the students of the Patriarchal School. The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Mr Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, members of the Consulate, and participating monks, nuns and faithful from Jerusalem, as well as a few pilgrims.

During the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, visited the Holy Monastery for veneration.

The Patriarchal and Episcopal entourages were generously received by the most devout Nun Photini, who diligently cares for the Monastery.

From the Chief Secretariat