Eutychius of Dacia

Eutychius was a missionary priest of Cappadocian birth, from Caesarea, who preached the Gospel in Carpathian Dacia in the fourth century, in the time of Saint Basil the Great. 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.

Almost everything known about him comes from Saint Basil's letter 164, addressed to the bishop of Thessalonica. Basil knew him well and writes that Eutychius was moved by the Holy Spirit to go among the pagans and confess Christ there. According to the tradition kept in the Paterikon, he laboured in the lands of Buzău and Vrancea, where he taught, baptized and brought to the faith Geto-⁠Dacian Romans, Goths and other peoples passing through the heart of Dacia.

Saint Basil holds him up as an example: he says that Eutychius knew how to soften "barbarian" peoples by the power of the Spirit, whereas the Christians of Basil's own day, weighed down by their sins, no longer managed it. The Paterikon adds that Eutychius was a great ascetic, credited with the gift of healing and with wonders; these last details are not attested in the letter.

His exact biography remains unknown: neither the year of his birth nor that of his repose is recorded. His name stands in the Paterikon beside that of the priest Sansala, of the Holy Martyrs Nicetas and Sabbas, and of other missionaries, mostly Cappadocians, who laid the foundations of Christianity north of the Danube.