Память преподобного отца нашего Евстафия исповедника, епископа Вифинийского 2258

Our holy father and confessor Eustathius, having renounced the blessings of this world as a heavy burden, and diligently fulfilling the commandments of God, devoted himself to monastic life. Later, bearing this yoke of Christ on his shoulders and caring for the salvation of his soul, he became a priest. In this rank he experienced many spiritual joys, for which he constantly thanked the Lord. Having great faith in God and unfeigned love for everyone, he was a humble, meek and merciful mentor and a zealous doer of good deeds. Then elected by the court of God as Bishop of Bithynia, he ruled the church for many years, in accordance with the teaching and tradition of the Divine Apostles. When unrest arose in all the churches of God over the iconoclastic heresy, he, having instructed himself in the Divine Scripture, struck with the sword of his word all who threatened the churches of God. Therefore, some of the champions of heresy reported him to the then reigning wicked emperor, and how can one describe all that the monk suffered for the veneration and worship of holy and all-honorable icons? He was subjected to threats, spitting, beatings, imprisonment, alarm, confusion and beating with sticks. Having finally been stabbed with sharpened sticks, he was deprived of his pulpit and sent into exile. Having lived in exile for many years, the Monk Eustathius, amid insults, embitterment, deprivation, hunger, thirst and nakedness, thanking God, departed to the eternal abode. Bithynia is a Roman province in the northwestern part of Asia Minor. The Monk Eustathius occupied the episcopal see in the city of Kiye (now Tsomplek), located in the depths of one of the bays of the Sea of ​​Marmara. You might be interested in: