Euphrosynus the Hermit of Agapia Veche

Euphrosynus was a hermit, a disciple of Saint Agapius and the second great laborer of the Agapia Veche hermitage, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

A little above Agapius's clearing is another clearing, quiet and surrounded by forest, called Euphrosynus's Clearing. There the hermit struggled for many years. His life was as choice as his teacher's, and his name became known to monks who loved stillness, who became his disciples.

In his time the first church and cells of Agapia Veche were ruined by a landslide. Euphrosynus and his disciples then built another wooden church, dedicated to the Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossae. The hermitage was also called Euphrosynus's Monastery or Saint Michael's Monastery. He was its first abbot and kept exactly the rule left by Agapius: during the week, especially in fasts, the monks withdrew into the mountain for fasting and prayer, and on feast days they gathered at the church, praised God and received the Holy Mysteries.

Under him the hermitage grew and became known as far as the metropolis and the prince, above all for the holiness of life there. The Paterikon writes that in the community there was no idle talk, no disturbance and no care for earthly things, but prayer, silence, guarding of thoughts and love. All practiced the Jesus Prayer and lived from the work of their hands.

Feeling his end near, Euphrosynus kissed his disciples and fell asleep at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was buried in the orchard planted by him and the community, called the Fathers' Orchard, where many hermits were buried in the following centuries.