Euthymius the Cellarer

Venerable Euthymius the Cellarer was the founder of the Docheiariou Monastery on Mount Athos and, according to tradition, a disciple and fellow labourer of Saint Athanasius the Athonite at the Great Lavra. He was born in Constantinople of illustrious and virtuous parents. At the Great Lavra he received the obedience of cellarer, that is, keeper of the oil store, and for that reason the monastery he later founded, called Daphni, became known as Docheiariou, “of the cellarer”.

Euthymius first built a small monastery dedicated to Saint Nicholas, but pirates destroyed it and he barely escaped. He then came to the place where Docheiariou stands today and built a church again, with cells beside it. After a short time his nephew Neophytus joined him, whom he tonsured a monk and to whom he entrusted the abbacy. Euthymius spent the rest of his life in stillness and fell asleep at the age of one hundred, according to the synaxarion. He is commemorated on 9 November (new style).