Khan el-Ahmar - EUTHYMIUS

Paragraph: 
52-54, 57-59
Translation: 

(52) The above-mentioned Thalabas lived in Lazarion. Once he brought down to the monastery his brother’s daughter, who was tormented by an unclean spirit. For three days he remained there with (the girl), who every day was anointed with the hallowed oil from our holy father Euthymius’ grave. On the third day she was seized convulsions and was cured and completely cleansed. (Thalabas) took her and went joyful back home.

(53) The son of another Saracen, called Argob, who was from the same estate, while he grazed a flock in the desert was seized by a demon and began shouting and calling Saint Euthymius’ (name). He was brought to the monastery with his face all twisted out of shape by the evil spirit, and was laid before the grave of the miracle-worker father. In a few days he was purified from the demonic possession and his distorted face was restored to normal.

(54) A woman from the village of Betabudisson, while she sat in her husband’s home at midday, was smitten by a fierce demon and remained moon-struck for seven months. Her husband bewailed his wife’s misfortune and was overcome with grief. He thought of the Saint and brought her down to the monastery. And since a woman cannot come inside, this woman remained for three whole nights and days before the monastery, fasting and unceasingly praying; every evening she received oil from the Saint’s grave and drank the liquid of his ever-burning lamp. And so she was delivered from the demon, after the Saint appeared to her on the third night and said: “Behold, you are healed: return to your home”. And from that time she gratefully comes to the monastery every year, to give thanks to God and to the Saint, to kiss the jamb of the gate and to offer a festive meal to the fathers of the monastery, as a token of gratitude.

...

(57) In the monastery there was a priest called Achthabios, who came from Betacabea, a village at a distance of twelve miles from Gaza: he had resided in the monastery for fully 45 years, proving himself a blameless worker in the fulfillment of the Lord’s commandments. This Abba Achthabios had a carnal brother in the above-mentioned village, called Romanus. A man pressed by a satanic envy tried to seize the property of this Romanus. Having failed to attain his object, enraged against (his enemy), this man went to Eleutheropolis and to a sorcerer, planning to kill Romanus. The sorcerer, after having obtained the (required) security, went to work with his diabolic witchcraft, and one day Romanus, having gone off to his field with some labourers, was seized with numbness. He was brought back home, and the disease progressed: he collapsed under an attack of dropsy and in a matter of days the physicians gave up hope of saving him. While his relatives sat weeping by his side, he opened his eyes and asked them to leave him alone; then he turned his face to the wall, like the great Hezekiah of old <2 Kings 20:2> and prayed to God, saying: “Lord of hosts, you who said ‘When you repent and groan, then you will be saved’ <Is. 30:15>, turn your eyes upon my unworthy self and deliver me from this calamity that oppresses me”. And he added: “Holy father Euthymius have pity on me and pray God for my release from this bitter malady”. After these and the like words of prayer, he fell into ecstasy and saw a white haired and white bearded monk, who said to him: “What do you want me to do for you?” Seized with awe and joy, Romanus asked: “Who are you, master?” and (the vision) answered: “I am Euthymius, whom you now invoked with faith. Do not be afraid, but show me what hurts you”. He pointed to his abdomen, and the vision made his finger into a straight edge as a knife, slashed open the part and extracted from Romanus belly a leaf made of tin inscribed with some characters, and put it on a little table in front of him. Then, massaging the part with his hand, (the vision) erased the cut, healed it and said to Romanus: “This happened to you because many days have elapsed without your going to church and approaching the divine mysteries. For this reason only you have been overpowered. For a man went to Eleutheropolis and engaged the services of demons against you. These demons gained power over you, owing to your neglect of your own salvation. Now behold: God has pitied you: never again neglect your prayers”. And after these words he disappeared; and Romanus came to himself, and immediately getting up he excreted all the matter that caused the disease, and so was restored to health. He called his family and recounted his vision. They marvelled at such a great and sudden change and praised God who gives such graces to his saints. Then Romanus came to the monastery with his family and, after having prostrated himself before the grave of the thaumaturgic father Euthymius, he told the entire story to the blessed Achthabios, to the hegumen and to all of us, and so, having announced the miracle, he went back home. On the anniversary of the miracle Romanus gives a public feast in his village, celebrating the memory of the grace received by him through the miracle-worker Euthymius.

(58) At a distance of ten stadia from the laura of Pharan, to the east, there is a village called Pharan, which, I believe, also gave its name to the laura. A man from this village, Cyriacus by name, who had a herd in the desert, received from a poor man of the same village ten sheep, in order to keep them at pasture with his own flock, according to conditions agreed upon in advance. After some time the poor man, under the pressure of some need, wanted to sell his animals, and Cyriacus gave him eight sheep, instead of the ten (he had received). When the man protested that the animals delivered by him were ten, Cyriacus denied it. As (the two men) quarrelled and fought, some people who acted as arbiters proposed to them (that Cyriacus should take) an oath, as a means of settling the quarrel. Cyriacus having agreed to swear, the poor man asked that the oath be rendered on St. Euthymius’ grave. Therefore, on the appointed day, (the two men) went to the monastery, and, as they reached the king’s road descending from Jerusalem to Jericho - as later the man who received the oath recounted when the monastery came into sight, seeing that the other was about to deliver himself to perjury, (the poor man) had qualms and said: “Let us turn back, brother. See, in the time it took us to arrive here, I have been satisfied (that you are right)”. But the other refused to turn back. They entered the monastery, the wretched man swore on the grave of the venerable father and left the monastery safe and sound. He thought he could escape God’s notice, or rather he himself took no notice of God, and like a true fool said in his heart “There is no God” <Ps. 14:1> … <Two nights later the perjurer saw a vision of an old monk, who reproached him and had him beaten up.> Cyriacus, terrified, screamed: “For God’s sake, have pity on me”. The neighbours rushed to his help and, hearing what had happened, and seeing his back gangrenous from the blows, they were terribly frighten. Cyriacus begged to be brought to the monastery, confessing, that he had grievously sinned against the holy place. So (his neighbours) put him on an ass between two sacks of straw and brought him to the monastery; after they told us the story, they also showed us the signs of the blows on the man’s back, and we saw that his back looked as though he has suffered a severe flogging with thongs. At that sight the fathers of the monastery were seized with fear and, from that time, as it is in their power, they do not permit anybody to administer an oath or to swear at the holy father’s grave. These people stayed in the monastery for a whole day, then, as they could not lay him in the funeral chapel, for he had a flux of bowels, discharged blood and continuously vomited, they carried him away half dead; and on the morrow he died, being made an example for all who are ready to perjure themselves.

(59) In these days a foreign traveller arrived at the monastery and was hospitably received. At midnight he descended to the funeral chapel, uprooted the silver funnel of the thaumaturgic father, and taking it, went off that same night with the beasts of the monastery. Procopius, the one who had been cured by the Saint and had been entrusted with the office of gate-keeper, going out early in the morning, found the thief of the funnel fixed as a pillar as though nailed to the ground before the monastery, and, having learned the cause of his immobility, led him back into the monastery. He confessed to us that, though he had wandered a distance of almost 30 miles and had tired himself out, he had been unable to pass the boundaries of the monastery. We took the funnel and marvelled at the power and the forbearance of our miracle-worker father; as to the many we gave him supplies for his journey, since he was needy, and let him go.

(transl. Leah Di Segni)

Summary: 
Various miracles relating to the monastery.
Key quotation(s): 
2 Kings 20:2; Is. 30:15; Ps. 14:1