St Euthymius the Great
Ἅγιος Εὐθύμιος ὁ Μέγας
When a Monophysite usurper seized the see of Jerusalem after Chalcedon, Euthymius withdrew into the deep desert and refused his communion until the lawful patriarch returned, the clearest ancient pattern of what Canon 15 would later protect.
- Feast day
- 20 January
- Century
- 5th c.
- Region
- The Judaean desert
- Rank
- Abbot and father of Palestinian monasticism
Biography
Born at Melitene in 377, Euthymius came to the Judaean desert in 405 and became the father of its lavras. His Life, written by Cyril of Scythopolis within living memory, is among the most sober documents of early monasticism.
After Chalcedon (451), the monk Theodosius raised Palestine against the council, expelled Patriarch Juvenal, and held Jerusalem as an anti-Chalcedonian patriarch for some twenty months. Euthymius refused every summons to his communion, withdrew with a few disciples to the remote desert of Rouba, and remained apart until Juvenal was restored (453). Later he received the empress Eudocia back from the anti-Chalcedonian party to the Church's communion. He reposed in 473.
The controversy
- The anti-Chalcedonian usurpation of Jerusalem (451 to 453): not a distant heresiarch but the occupant of one's own patriarchal throne demanding communion.
Position taken
- No communion with the intruder who rejected the council, yet no rival altar either: withdrawal, endurance, and return the moment the lawful order was restored.
- His example fixes the shape this library calls the wall: temporary, defensive, within the Church, awaiting her judgment.
Quotations
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Verified quotation to be inserted after source review.
Related councils
Related figures
Bibliography
- Cyril of Scythopolis, Lives of the Monks of Palestine (ed. E. Schwartz; tr. R. M. Price, Cistercian Studies 114).
- D. J. Chitty, The Desert a City (1966).