Euthymius Yevtushenko

Hieroschemamonk Euthymius Yevtushenko (in the world Yemelyan Gerasimovich Yevtushenko) was a Ukrainian Orthodox ascetic and Athonite monk, one of the best-⁠known long-⁠lived men among the Orthodox clergy of the twentieth century, who lived a hundred and five years and died in the hundred and sixth year of his life. He was born in 1865 and fell asleep on 9 September 1970 at Kirovohrad (now Kropyvnytskyi). Our source says nothing of a canonization nor gives him a feast day: he is honoured by the faithful as a spiritual elder.

Childhood and Athos

He was born in 1865 in the settlement of Yelanets (now in the Voznesensk district, Mykolaiv region), into a pious Ukrainian peasant family. Because of the loss of early documents and the contradiction of Soviet and church archive records, the sources give three versions for the date of his birth: 18 (31) August, the day of commemoration of Bishop Emilian of Trebia, 1 August or 2 February 1865. From childhood he showed zeal for the spiritual life. At fourteen (around 1879) his mother took him to the Holy Mountain Athos and gave him at once into the hands of the monks, for spiritual upbringing and monastic obedience. In 1910 he received tonsure as a rassophore. He did his obedience in the well-⁠known metochia of Athos, those of Saint John Chrysostom and of Panteleimon.

In time of persecution

In 1918, because of the upheavals of history and the First World War, he had to return to Ukraine. He continued monastic obedience at Odesa, at the Athonite metochia there. From 1931, in time of harsh anti-⁠religious persecution by Soviet power, he moved to parish service, first at a church in Voznesensk, then as priest at the Dormition church in the village of Novokrasne (now in the Arbuzynka community of the Mykolaiv region). In 1943, in the time of the German-⁠Romanian occupation, he was ordained hierodeacon.

In 1944, at the retreat of the German armies, he was taken by force by the occupiers to hard labour in Austria, together with thousands of other civilians. From Austria he managed to get to Yugoslavia, where he returned to monastic life and was received among the brethren of the renowned Serbian monastery of Visoki Dečani, in Kosovo and Metohija. In 1946 he obtained official permission from Soviet power to return to his homeland. Back in Ukraine, he joined the brethren of the Dormition Lavra of Pochaiv, in the Ternopil region, where he did his obedience in the first years after the war. In 1950 he was ordained hieromonk and soon was sent to parish service in the Cherkasy region, as priest in the village of Radynivka. There he gained great respect from the local faithful for his prayer, simplicity and spiritual guidance. In 1961, because of his age (Father Yemelyan was then ninety-⁠six), he retired officially. About that time he received the great schema, with the name Euthymius.

At Kirovohrad

In 1967 Patriarch Alexy I assigned the hundred-⁠and-⁠two-⁠year-⁠old schema-⁠monk a personal church pension. The last part of the elder's life passed at Kirovohrad. From 1 August 1968, because of deep old age, care of him was taken on by a local parishioner, Marfa Sergeyevna Korol, in whose house on Yana Tompa street, now Velyka Perska, no. 68, he lived. Despite his age of over a hundred, the elder Euthymius kept to the last days his spiritual vigour. He went almost daily to the services of the cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God, received communion every week, kept a strict fast and unceasing prayer. Many faithful from different parts came to him for counsel.

Repose

He fell asleep in the Lord on 9 September 1970, in the hundred-⁠and-⁠sixth year, of hypertensive disease. With the blessing of Bishop Bogolep of Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv, the funeral service was performed by the diocesan secretary, Archpriest Yevgeny Barshchevsky, with the clergy of the city. He was buried at the Far East cemetery of Kirovohrad. His grave is a known place of veneration and pilgrimage of the Orthodox faithful of the region.