[[Image:StEuthymiusTheGreat.jpg|thumb|right|St. Euthymius the great: 17th c. painting on wood at [[Dionysiou Monastery (Athos)|Dionysiou Monastery]], [[Mount Athos|Mt. Athos]]]] Our great and [[venerable]] father '''Euthymius''' (sometimes spelled Euthymios or Efthymios) was a [[monasticism|monastic ]] who lived in the latter 4th fourth and the 5th fifth centuries. The Church celebrates his [[feastday]] [[January 20]].

When the saint's father died, his mother offered him to Eutrojos, [[bishop]] of Melitine, by whom he was counted with the order of [[clergy|clerics]]. Because he was intelligent in his studies and surpassed all men in virtue and [[asceticism]], he was forced to be [[ordination|ordained ]] a [[priest]] and to look after the holy [[hermitage]]s and [[Monastery|monasteries]]. When he was twenty-nine years old, he went to [[Jerusalem]] and lived with St. [[Theoctistus|Theoktistos]] in a cave on the mountain. While he was there, St. Euthymius liberated many men from the terrible chains of disease.

They also say that this saint fed four hundred men, who had come to the monastery, with very few loaves of bread. Moreover, not only did he break his mother's sterility through his birth, but also through [[prayer]] he made other childless women to be fruitful. He also opened the gates of Heaven, as great [[Elijah]] had done, bringing rain during a period of drought. Once a column of light, seen descending from Heaven by the by-standers while the [[saint ]] was celebrating the [[Eucharist|bloodless sacrifice]], made the internal brightness of divine Euthymius' soul known. This light shone over the saint until he completed the [[Liturgy]]. A further sign of the purity and [[chastity]] of the saint was that he could spiritually see the mood and the condition of those souls when they approached to receive the [[Holy CommunionEucharist]].

Another story about St. Euthymius' clairvoyance involves a [[monk]] who was about to die. This monk outwardly appeared to be a prudent and moderate saint, but in his heart he was lecherous and imtemperate intemperate because he allowed his labors to be sweetened with shameful thoughts. So, when this monk at the point of death, blessed Euthymius saw an angel taking the soul of that miserable monk by force, using a three-pronged spear. Immediately the saint also heard a voice revealing all the hidden and shameful thoughts of that dying monk.

When Euthymius was ninety-six years old (in A.D. 473), he depared departed to the Lord. He had established religious communities throughout Palestine.