By Haralambos M. Bousias
On the 23rd of this month [May], we commemorate our Venerable and God-bearing Father, Eumenios the Cretan, who in these latter days shined forth in Athens.
Verses
Healer of lepers and pestilential diseases,
You were seen, Eumenios, as a guide of the faithful.
On the 23rd of this month [May], we commemorate our Venerable and God-bearing Father, Eumenios the Cretan, who in these latter days shined forth in Athens.
Verses
Healer of lepers and pestilential diseases,
You were seen, Eumenios, as a guide of the faithful.
Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Eumenios had as his homeland Ethia in the province of Monofatsi in Herakleion, Crete. Wounded by divine eros as a child he followed the monastic path in the Monastery of the Great Martyr Niketas, which is located near where he was born. At his tonsure he received the name Sophronios, and at his ordination as a hieromonk by Archbishop Timothy of Crete at the Monastery of Kaliviani he received the name Eumenios. Attacked by the arrows of the hater of that which is good, Belial, he went to the famous Monastery of Koudouma, where he was liberated from that most wicked influence. Becoming sick with a pestilential disease he went to the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Athens, it became an arena for his ascetic battles and a palace of sympathy for those sick who are suffering and in pain. At the Hospital for Infectious Diseases he fulfilled his duties in the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries and he diligently served Venerable Nikephoros, whose surname was Tzanakakis, who was blind, a leper and a paralytic. He served all those in need and the sick in great pain and became a spiritual father and guide towards salvation of countless Athenian Christians. He endured without complaint, in imitation of Job, the sicknesses of his flesh and was distinguished for his humility, meekness and sympathy towards all the sick. He reposed in Athens on the 23rd of May in the year of salvation 1999, when his grace-flowing body was displayed for veneration in the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries at the Hospital for Infectious Diseases and was given a last embrace by a countless mournful crowd. He was then buried in his homeland.
Through his holy intercessions, Christ God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Apolytikion in Plagal of the First Tone
Divine comforter to those in rough seas, aid to those in need, and guide without error, the reverence of the people with longing praises with hymns Eumenios, as one equal in zeal with Job, an expeller of evil spirits, a most gracious intercessor for us to the compassionate Lord.
Kontakion in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
To the long-suffering, quiet, sensible, simple, meek and humble and sympathetic, revered hieromonk, let us sing praises and odes flowing with honey, without error he was a mighty guide to the faithful, and with longing we cry out: Rejoice, blessed Eumenios.
Megalynarion
Rejoice, you who have lately shined as a close helper to those in pain, a new example of patience, extreme humility and virtue, sensible Father Eumenios.