Joseph the Armenian

Joseph the Armenian was an ascetic of Mount Athos in the ninth century, the spiritual father of St Euthymios the New of Thessaloniki. After his death his body distilled fragrant oil. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Euthymios, born in the reign of the iconoclast Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813-820), came to Athos after fifteen years on Mount Olympus in Bithynia and found in Joseph, an Armenian of great virtue, a spiritual father. They encouraged one another in the struggle and decided to spend three years in a cave, near where New Skete now stands, without going out and without a thought for food, relying on the goodness of the heavenly Father. They came out victorious and illumined by grace. Then Euthymios, Joseph and some disciples settled at Vrastamon in Chalkidiki, where they lived in separate cells, forming a lavra.