5th century
Saint Euthymius the Great
Ascetic of Palestine (377–473).
Biography
Euthymius was born in 377 in Melitene in Armenia and, after his father's early death, was raised under Bishop Otreius, who educated him and later ordained him. Around 406 he arrived in Jerusalem and lived as a hermit in a cave near the Laura of Pharan.
He later founded a monastery in the Judaean desert together with the monk Theoctistus, around which many disciples gathered. He supported the decisions of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon and helped keep Palestine loyal to Orthodoxy, and according to tradition even persuaded Empress Eudocia to abandon Monophysitism.
He died peacefully in 473 at the age of 97 and is counted among the great fathers of Palestinian monasticism.