By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Eutychios was born around 512 A.D. in the village of Theia Kome in Phrygia. His father was a general in the army of Belisarius. Saint Eutychios became a monk at the age of 30 through the Metropolitan of Amaseia, and he lived in Constantinople as the apocrisiarius (representative) of the Metropolitan of Amaseia, eventually attaining the ecclesiastical rank of Archimandrite.
Saint Eutychios was held in high esteem by Patriarch Menas, and after the latter’s death, the Saint was elected Patriarch at the suggestion of Emperor Justinian. During the time of his first Patriarchate, specifically from May 5 to June 21 of the year 553 A.D., the Fifth Ecumenical Synod was convened.
In 564 A.D., he came into conflict with the Emperor over the heresy of the Aphthartodocetists. Saint Eutychios condemned this heresy despite the pressure exerted by the Emperor. On January 22, 565 A.D., while he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the feast of Saint Timothy, soldiers arrested him. Following this, he was deposed and exiled — first to Prinkipos and later to Amaseia in Pontus.
After the death of his successor, Patriarch John Scholasticus, the new Emperor Justin II recalled Saint Eutychios to the throne, and he returned to Constantinople in October of 577 A.D.
A few moments before his death, he touched the skin of his hand and said: “I confess that in this flesh we shall rise.” He said this because in the past he had taught that after the resurrection of the dead, they would have a body immaterial and more subtle than air. Saint Eutychios peacefully surrendered his soul to the Lord on April 5, 582 A.D.
He was buried beneath the base of the Holy Altar in the Church of the Holy Apostles, beside the sacred relics of the Apostle Andrew, the Evangelist Luke, and Saint Timothy. His Holy Head is preserved today in the Monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos.
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Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer is among those hymnographers of our Church who delight in making use of the name of a Saint — whenever, of course, the occasion permits — in order to employ it for the manifestation of his holiness. This is precisely what he does also with Saint Eutychios. On the one hand, in the Verses of the Synaxarion he judges himself to be "most blessed" (ευτυχέστατον/eutychestaton), because he has been deemed worthy to honor with his words Eutychios who has departed from this life. His engagement, that is, with this particular Saint contributes to his own spiritual progress and advancement. “Honoring with my words Eutychios who has died, I consider myself most blessed”). In this he resembles Saint Gregory the Theologian, who, when he undertook the funeral oration for the Great Athanasios, wrote that his praise of Athanasios would be praise of virtue itself — “In praising Athanasios, I shall praise virtue” — which means that even the mere remembrance of Athanasios functioned as an impetus for Gregory’s spiritual ascent. The reason for the connection of a Saint with the spiritual progress of the one who remembers him, even if the occasion is external, as in this case the name of Eutychios, is the fact that a Saint, because he is a manifestation of the Kingdom of God, truly advances the one who comes into any kind of contact with him.
On the other hand, Saint Theophanes, again taking occasion from the name of Saint Eutychios, proceeds to a spiritual evaluation, as he compares the state of virtues with the state of passions. What does he say? “Having prospered through virtues and been made radiant by the light-bearing splendors of the gifts of God, deliver me from the miseries of the passions by your intercessions, O wise one” (Ode 1). Thus, from the very beginning of his Canon for the Saint, Theophanes emphasizes the fundamental truth that turning toward the blameworthy human passions — namely love of pleasure, love of money, love of glory, everything that is the fruit of self-love — has as its price misery. In other words, one cannot live sinfully without experiencing the result of sin: spiritual death and misery. For “the wages of sin is death.” On the other hand, insofar as one turns toward God and purifies the heart so that the light of God may shine, one also acquires blessedness. Thus, blessedness exists where God and His presence exist; misery exists where man erases God and is dragged along by his passions and by the devil who operates through them.
The Hymnographer, of course, goes on to explain the way in which Saint Eutychios was able to turn toward God, overcoming his passions. And the explanation he gives is that which the timeless spiritual tradition of our Church always sets forth: the Saint was cleansed from the mire of the passions because he showed great diligence in the law of God, practicing self-control and prayer from childhood, and thus making his nous the ruler of himself. “Having cleansed yourself from the mire of the passions through much diligence” (Ode 3). “Having suckled from childhood at the breasts of self-control, and through unceasing prayers you truly attained to the measure of the stature of Christ” (Ode 3). “You made your nous a ruler; therefore you mastered the tyranny of the passions, O holy one” (Ode 1).
And of course, the Holy Hymnographer cannot fail to mention, beyond the ascetic and holy conduct of Eutychios, his struggle on behalf of the Orthodox faith. Saint Eutychios was a clergyman and indeed became Patriarch. In his time, as we saw also in his Synaxarion, the Fifth Ecumenical Synod took place. Therefore, by virtue of his position and his pastoral conscience, his struggle for the faith was a given. Saint Theophanes, then, refers to this at length, even noting: “Being covered by the shield of piety, and taking up as a two-edged sword the sacred dogma, you truly cut down all the ranks of those who held heretical views” (Ode 8). And it is especially significant that Saint Theophanes points out that in his struggle against heresy the Saint had as his ally the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was the very One blasphemed by the heretics. That is, the One who was blasphemed, though it seemed that He was being pushed to the margins by the distortions of the philosophizing heretics, is in fact, as the almighty God, always on the front line. “You did not grow faint nor bend, as you endured persecutions for the faith; for you had as your ally Him who was blasphemed, Christ Himself” (Ode 4).
We may be speaking at length, but it is worth, we think, especially highlighting the above phrase from the hymn of Saint Theophanes in Ode 8: “Being covered by the shield of piety, and taking up as a two-edged sword the sacred dogma, you truly cut down all the ranks of those who held heretical views.” That is, Saint Eutychios took dogma as a sword precisely because he lived within piety — the right manner of life. And this means that one can rightly use the dogma of the faith only when one lives rightly in love — for love is the right way of life, piety itself. Otherwise, dogma alone without love becomes a sword that destroys and rends people, as the sanctified Elder Paisios the Athonite said: “There are some who have seized dogma with their teeth and thus cause greater harm to the Church than her enemies!”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
