Methodius of Nyvritos

Saint Methodius of Nyvritos was a hermit of Crete, born at Rethymno during Arab rule. He seems to have lived in the ninth and tenth centuries.

His exact place of origin and the monastery of his tonsure are unknown; it may be the Monastery of Preveli. But the name of his elder, Euthymius, who struggled in the mountains of Nyvritos, is known. There Methodius lived too, joining gentleness, patience and temperance with many other virtues, a purely monastic life, or more exactly that of a hermit, in the high mountains that stretch towards the south-⁠eastern slopes of Psiloritis, in a natural setting suited to a true ascetic of God. Tradition says he met the venerable Nicholas of Kourtaliotis, commemorated on 1 September, who struggled in a neighbouring region; some maintain that he struggled in a cave beside the Monastery of Saint Nicholas, near the village of Zaros, where a church dedicated to the venerable Methodius of Nyvritos is still preserved. Some regard the two saints as one person, but scholars still have to clarify the matter.

He fell asleep in the Lord, full of days, as he had longed to from childhood. His commemoration is kept on 25 June, in the village of Nyvritos. His relic is kept at the Monastery of Epanosifis. The hymnographer of his service is unknown; from its character it is thought he was a pious ascetic of little learning. His veneration is local, in Crete.