Parthenius of Gortyna

Saint Parthenius of Gortyna, called also of Koudouma, was a Cretan monk, brother of Saint Eumenius. The two brothers, in the world Nicholas and Emmanuel Charitakis, were born in 1829 and 1846 respectively in the village of Pitsidia on Crete, of devout parents. In 1858 they were received as novices in the monastery of the Hodegetria in the Metropolis of Gortyna and Arcadia. In 1862 and 1865 they were tonsured rasophores with the names Nestor and Methodius, and in 1866 into the great schema, with the names Parthenius and Eumenius.

With the abbot's blessing they struggled in a dependency of the monastery, in the caves of Martsallo. In 1868 Eumenius was ordained deacon and in 1870 priest. In 1874 the brothers withdrew for stillness into the Asterousia mountains, and in 1878 they founded at the place called Koudouma the monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God. Parthenius passed to the Lord in 1905, and Eumenius in 1920. By their virtuous life they gained the gift of working miracles, and after their death they were widely venerated on Crete.

On 8 January 2007, by a patriarchal and synodal act of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the venerable Eumenius and Parthenius of Gortyna were numbered among the saints. Saint Parthenius is commemorated on 23 July, in the new style.