Commemorated September 18 (New Calendar) October 1 (Old Calendar)

Saint Eumenius was a bishop of Gortyna on Crete in the seventh century. From youth he gave his goods to the poor, kept watch and fasting, and was set over the church there. He reposed in the Thebaid. His body was carried back to Gortyna and buried with honor.

What the reading keeps

He laid down two burdens: care for property and care for the body. He clothed the poor with what he had taken off himself, and he would not give his eyes sleep until passion had been worn down.

The church of Gortyna chose him because that life already shone. He taught first by the life, then by the word. His name means gracious. The reading keeps him as a father to orphans, wealth to the poor, and a physician to those who suffered.

By prayer he killed a great serpent that came at him. He also went to Rome, where he drove out demons, healed the sick, and quieted those at enmity. In the Thebaid, in a time without rain, he asked and rain came. He died there in peace. They brought him home to the place of his serving.

The memory records that later notes place his going to the Thebaid as exile for opposing heresy. It does not preserve spoken words.

Who stood with him

The flock of Gortyna stood under him. The poor, the orphans, the sick, and the angry are named by their need, not by their names. Those who loved him carried his body from the Thebaid back to Crete.

He put the goods down first, and only then was he asked to keep a people.

We ask his prayers when property and the body have become too heavy to carry through the narrow way, and when a church needs a man who will feed the poor before he speaks.

Pray for us

Troparion, Tone 4 “We have you as a friend and helper, gracious advocate Eumenius: For compassion flowed from you and you pour forth healing on the Church. Protect those who honor you.”

Kontakion, Tone 2 “Radiant with divine light, O blessed one, illumine us who lovingly praise your precious and glorious passing; hierarch father Eumenius, unceasingly intercede for us all.”

Saint Eumenius, pray for us.

Sources

St. Demetrius of Rostov, Lives of the Saints, September 18. https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Dmitrij_Rostovskij/zhitija-svjatykh/799

Orthodox Church in America, Saint Eumenius, Bishop of Gortyna. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2018/09/18/102653-saint-eumenius-bishop-of-gortyna

This site is a lamp, not a parish. Listen to the life. Then find a living Orthodox church and ask a priest to pastor you. https://pieceofhumanity.com/find-a-parish/