The Monk John, “in order to increase the grace given to his son by the Lord” and since “the country of Kartli has a great need for books and many books are missing,” blessed his son for translation work. Hearing about the miracle, St. Afanasy of Afonsky convinced Euthymius to take the rank. In 975 the monk began translating books.
In the mid-90s. X century, the Monk John became seriously ill and entrusted his son with the care of the Iveron Monastery and the brethren, which at that time numbered about 300 people. A few years later, sensing his imminent death, he blessed Euthymius to become the abbot of the monastery, and to transfer the obedience of the confessor of the brethren to a relative, St. George the Svyatogorets, so that the latter, in the event of the death of Euthymius, would take over as abbot.
Euthymius introduced into the monastic charter of Iviron “Rules and regulations that affirm the faith,” based on disciplinary and moral principles, characterizing which St. George wrote: “As he was, our blessed father Euthymius, filled with heavenly grace, such were the rules and regulations he established in his monastery.” General monastic affairs were considered by the council of the monastery brethren, and private ones by the economist. The abbotship took up a lot of the reverend's time, and this affected his translation activities. On the advice of his companions, St. Arseny of Ninotsminda and St. John (Grdzelidze), in 1019 he transferred control of the monastery to St. George, but continued to “supervise the progress of affairs” both in Iviron and at the request of St. Athanasius of Athos in the Great Lavra, and also petitioned the Byzantine emperor for benefits and assistance to the Athonite monasteries.
St. George characterizes Euthymius as a worker, a man of prayer and a strict faster: the saint came to the church before everyone else and defended the entire service; on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he did not leave his cell and kept a strict fast: only after sunset he ate water and bread; was “an example for all the brethren... he never gave himself rest in anything.” He wore rags and iron chains over them. 2 times a month, Euthymius “taught the brethren ... teachings and instructions in spiritual life,” and “the word from his sacred lips, full of wisdom and consolation, exuded spiritual healing for everyone.” According to the hagiographer, the monk was a close spiritual friend of St. Gabriel of Iveron (Svyatogorets) and “blessed Leon, founder of the Roman monastery on Athos,” he often had spiritual conversations with them. Euthymius was distinguished by special humility: he refused the offer of the Byzantine Emperor Vasily II of the Bulgarian Slayers to occupy the high priestly throne after the death of the Archbishop of Cyprus.
Numerous miracles are associated with the name of Saint Euthymius. During his visit to Thessalonica, the local archbishop asked the monk to enter into a dispute with a learned Jew, with whom the bishop himself often talked, but could not convert to Christianity. When “the Jew found himself in difficulty and powerless... he began to blaspheme the Christians’ immaculate faith,” Euthymius ordered him to shut his mouth. Numb, the Jew believed and threw himself at the saint’s feet. Through the prayer of the saint, the gift of speech returned to the Jew, and from then on he “appeared to be a very believing man.”
In one of the driest years on Athos, when there was no rain for 4 months, Euthymius, on the day of the prophet Elijah, performed in the Athos church in the name of the prophet. Elijah all-night vigil and liturgy. The Life states that during the 1st reading of the Gospel clouds appeared over “Mount Erisioni”; before communion began, torrential rain began, which subsided only by the “evening riveting.” Another miracle is associated with the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. During the liturgy, which the monk was celebrating on the top of Mount Athos, an earthquake occurred, high flames surrounded the saint, his image brightened and the singing of a large choir could be heard.
In the 20s XI century Unrest began in the Great Lavra and the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII invited Euthymius to a conversation in Constantinople. Anticipating his imminent death, he “gathered the brethren of the Iveron Monastery in the monastery of Theophanes, consoled the monks and commanded them to firmly and unchangeably keep their vows and obey the abbot.” The emperor greeted the monk with great honors. After the liturgy celebrated on the day of remembrance of St. John the Theologian, Euthymius, riding a mule, brought the icon of the apostle to the icon painter. John for renewal. Having met a beggar, the saint stopped to give alms. The mule, frightened by the rags, threw off its rider. A fall from a mule was the cause of the saint's illness and death.
The body of the newly deceased “with honor and the singing of psalms” was transferred to Iviron and buried in a church in the name of St. John the Baptist; the relics received the power of healing. Later Rev. George Svyatogorets transferred the relics to the cathedral church in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy. Mother of God, where they rest today. time. An unquenchable lamp was installed above the shrine, and the custom was introduced every year on the day of the saint’s memory to release oil to the priest for a year. Just a year after his death, the Monk Euthymius was canonized.
St. George Svyatogorets, Iversky (Athos), ktitor († 1066, commemorated May 13, June 27)
The Monk George of Iveron, Mount Athos, was born in Trialeti (region of Southern Georgia) in 1009 (according to some sources, in 1014) into the family of noble rulers Mary and Jacob. His father, on behalf of the Georgian king George I (1014-1027), went to the Persian Shah as an ambassador.
When the boy was 7 years old, his parents brought him to the Tadzria convent, where his older sister Tekle (Thekla) was raised. Here Saint George spent three years, and twice during this time he was miraculously saved from death by the Providence of God (in the Ktsia River and in the flames of a fire that broke out in the monastery).
In 1019, at the request of his uncles (father's brothers), George the Clerk and Savva, who labored in the Khakhul Monastery, the youth George received the blessing of the abbot of the Khakhul Monastery, Macarius, to be educated by the strict ascetic Hilarion Tualeli, who was famous for his education and height of spiritual life.
In 1022, Saint George was sent to Constantinople, where for twelve years he carefully studied science and received a comprehensive education.
After returning to Georgia in 1034, he took monastic vows at the Khakhul Monastery from the blessed elder Hilarion Tualeli. After some time, the monk George, having given his clothes to a beggar and dressed in his old rags, went to worship the holy places of Palestine.
After a short stay in the monasteries on Black Mountain (near Antioch), the monk George went to Divnaya Mountain, to the monastery of St. Simeon the Divnogorets († 459). There he found a spiritual mentor, Elder George the Silent († 1068), also a Georgian, who lived in a cleft in the rock. He spent three years in the monastery of St. Roman (from 1036 to 1039). At the age of 30, the Monk George received the great schema from Elder George the Silent. Then, with parting words from him, he went to Athos, to the Iveron Monastery. On the way, the saint visited Jerusalem and bowed to the Holy Sepulcher.
The Monk George arrived on Athos in 1040 and continued the work on the translation of the liturgical books and works of the holy fathers of the Church, begun by the Monk Euthymius of Iveron (May 13).
To this day, the Georgian Orthodox Church recognizes as canonical and permissible for church use only that edition of the Holy Scriptures that belongs to the pen of St. George of Iveron, who worthily completed the works of St. Euthymius.
The Life of St. George provides an incomplete list of his translations from Greek: the Great Synaxarion, the Acts and Epistles of the Holy Apostles, the twelve Liturgical Mineas, the Octoechos, the Triodion (lenten and colored), the Breviary, the Psalter, the Complete Book of Hours, the “Six Days” of St. Basil the Great, the Epistles of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, the Council Epistles St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Book of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the Book of St. Theodore the Studite, the Book of Acts of the VI Ecumenical Council “and many other useful and holy books.”