The
vita of Euthymius has been written by
Cyril of Scythopolis.
Melitene Euthymius was born in
Melitene in
Lesser Armenia in 377, in a pious family of noble birth. According to Christian tradition, his parents, Paul and Dionysia, had prayed for a son at the church of
Saint Polyeuctus in Melitene. When the child was born, they named him
Euthymius, meaning "good cheer". Euthymius was educated by Bishop
Otreius of Melitene, who afterwards
ordained him and placed him in charge of all the monasteries in the
Diocese of Melitene.
Pharan near Jerusalem In 405 or 406, at twenty-nine or thirty years of age, he secretly set out on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem and remained for five years there in an
anchoritic cell he built for himself in a cave near the
laura (settlement of monks) of
Pharan, about six miles east of
Jerusalem,
Monastery of Theoctistus In 411, Euthymius withdrew into the wilderness (Greek
eremos) with a fellow
hermit from Pharan,
Theoctistus (see
below), living in a rough
cavern on the banks of a
torrent. Cyril of Skythopolis is describing how a miraculous cure effected by Euthymius for Terebon, the son of the
Saracen chief called "Aspebetus" by Cyril (in fact probably the
Persian title of the man, "
spahbed"), led the latter and his entire tribe into adopting Christianity, with Aspebetus being baptised as Peter. The tribe of Peter settled near the monastery. Peter, the Bedouin chief Euthymius had baptised, joined him and had a number of facilities built for the two: a large cistern, three cells, a chapel and a bakery. in which capacity he went on to attend the
Council of Ephesus in 431.
Laura of Euthymius Euthymius, who initially had no intention of founding a monastery around his cave, He would later become a renowned archimandrite of the hermits in the country. ==Death, burial and feast day==