David of Euboea

Venerable David of Euboea (David the Elder) was an abbot and founder of a monastery on Euboea, in the time of Turkish rule. Born at Gardenitsa, in Phthiotis, in the second half of the fifteenth century or early in the next, he was a monk in Magnesia, on Athos and at Nafpaktos, abbot at Panagia Varnakova, and then a hermit and founder of the monastery that bears his name, in northern Euboea. He is honoured as a teacher of the Greek nation and as a miracle-⁠working saint. His commemoration is on 1 November. The sources do not agree on the years of his life.

The years of apprenticeship

Saint David was born at Gardenitsa, the former cadastral district of the community of Kyparissi, in Phthiotis. The sources differ on the year of birth: about 1490 (by Ch. G. Petrinelis), about 1485 (by other biographers), 1519 (by Metropolitan Theophilos Kanavos of Gortyna) or, by the Serbian source, early in the sixteenth century, and he is said to have been a priest's son. The year of death is given as either 1589 or 1601, while one source says he lived until the first half of the sixteenth century. These dates do not fit one another and cannot be brought to one.

It is said that at three he had a vision. Saint John the Baptist appeared to him and urged him to follow him. According to his Life, the Baptist led him to the local church, where he is said to have stayed six days before this saint's icon. At fifteen he left his native village to serve in a monastery in Magnesia, with the hieromonk Acacius, known in the region as a worthy monk and good preacher, where he stayed five years. Then David and Acacius left that monastery to struggle at the monastery built by Alexios I Komnenos, in the Ossa region, near Olympus, where David accepted to be ordained hierodeacon.

Not long after, they went to see Mount Athos and the Lavra of Saint Athanasius the Athonite. Then David followed Acacius, who had been consecrated bishop of the Holy Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Arta (by the Serbian source, consecrated by Patriarch Jeremias II), in his diocese, and soon was ordained hieromonk.

Abbot and hermit

Being abbot of the monastery of Panagia Varnakova at Eupalion, Phocis (1520 to 1532), David went to Mount Steiri, between Helicon and Parnassus, where he founded a new, small monastery. Later he was accused of having been the cause of the flight of several slaves of an Agarene lord of Livadeia and, for this, was arrested, tortured and imprisoned. Released, he did not return to Steiri. By the Serbian source the locals bought him free. In search of a place where he could struggle ascetically, he came to Euboea. He settled where the monastery dedicated to him now stands, where at that time there was a ruined chapel of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, above the village of Rovies.

The monastery

As the saint's fame spread, more and more Christians came to see and know him, and the need arose to build a monastery there. So David left for a time to collect money among the various Christian communities (he reached the Russian Empire). In a few years the newly built monastery was dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is told that, receiving in Russia many valuable objects as help for the building, and finding it hard to carry them, he sealed them, threw them into the sea, blessed them, and they travelled alone as far as Euboea, where they met him when he arrived too. He stayed there until his repose, at an advanced age. He remained known for his virtuous life and for help given to the needy. He was one of the enlightened teachers of the nation, who contributed much to the education of the enslaved Greeks. Both he and his successor, Saint Jacob Tsalikis, are known as miracle-⁠working saints, swift to help.

His apolytikion says that Euboea found in him a great ornament, the all-⁠glorious divine David, a dwelling of holy virtue, a true follower of Christ and equal to all the venerable fathers, and asks him to intercede for us for the great mercy.