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The Monk Evphrosyn Commemorated on March 2 The Monk Evphrosyn
was a student and the successor to the Monk Savvatii in governing the
Savvat'ev wilderness monastery. During his time as hegumen there came to the
monastery the Monk Joseph of Volotsk, who wrote about his visit as follows:
"I beheld in the Savvat'ev wilderness an holy hermit-elder, by the name of
Evphrosyn. He was born of the princes of Teprinsk. He dwelt precariously in the
wilderness for 60 years. Many monks came to him for advice, as well as princes
and boyars / nobles, disrupting his silence. He then fled human conversation to
Great Novgorod, to lake Nevo (Ladozhskoe or Ladoga), found an island and dwelt
there for several years. The surrounding inhabitants, hearing about the
ascetic, began to throng to him with their wives and children, and he was again
obliged to hide himself, just as at the Savvat'ev wilderness. The ruler of this
land – prince Boris Aleksandrovich – sent his own daughter to him, then
betrothed to marry GreatPrince Ivan Vasil'evich. With her came archimandrites,
hegumens and boyars, and they began to ask of blessed Evphrosyn that he help the
maiden: she was very sickly, and they brought her to blessed Evphrosyn in the
wilderness by carrying her. He refused them, calling himself a sinner and
unworthy. They entreated the saint with tears, saying: "If she remains
alive through thy prayers, then thou wilt bring peace, father, to two
principalities". © 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos. |
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