From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   May 13th - St. Euthymius the Enlightener, Abbot   
      
   This Euthymius was the son of that St. John the Iberian who is noticed   
   herein on   
   July 12. As there narrated, Euthymius accompanied his father on his   
   retirement   
   to Mount Athos, and helped him in the foundation there of the famous   
   monastery   
   Iviron for monks from their native Iberia (Georgia).* [* The homeland of   
   Joseph   
   Stalin, vere Yugashvili, who was born near Tiflis.]   
      
   On the death of John about the year 1040, Euthymius succeeded him as abbot.   
      
   Under his care Iviron grew and prospered, attracting recruits from Palestine   
   and   
   Armenia as well as Iberia, and Euthymius had to weed out a considerable   
   number   
   of wealthy young men whose idea of the monastic life was that it was one of   
   elegant retirement and repose. The biography of himself and his father,   
   written   
   by the hieromonk George the Hagiorite about 1040, devotes a good deal of   
   space   
   to common-form eulogy of the virtues of these holy men, but a reasonably   
   living   
   picture of St. Euthymius nevertheless emerges.   
      
   He appears as a firm but not severe superior, who directed more by example   
   than   
   by precept and who knew the importance of keeping an eye on details.   
   Remarkably   
   enough for those days and a wine-drinking country, he was what is now called   
   a   
   teetotaller; but he was none the less careful that the wine ration, which   
   each   
   monk had with his dinner as a matter of course, should be of good quality   
   and   
   not unduly watered. Another practical point was that beardless youths should   
   not   
   be employed as workmen around the monastery: "I know that grown men must be   
   paid   
   higher wages, but it is better to spend more money than to expose our   
   brethren   
   to possible harm".   
      
   The work of predilection of St. Euthymius was the translation of sacred   
   books   
   from Greek into Iberian, and George the Hagiorite names over sixty for which   
   the   
   Iberian church was indebted to him. Among them were biblical commentaries,   
   writings of St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ephrem and St. John   
   Damascene,   
   the Institutes of St. John Cassian, and the Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory   
   the   
   Great. One of his translations, from Iberian into Greek this time, has an   
   interest for hagiology:  this was the so-called History of Saints Barlaam   
   and   
   Josaphat (Joasaph), imaginary people whose names Cardinal Baronius   
   unfortunately   
   added to the Roman Martyrology (November 27). Naturally enough, St.   
   Euthymius   
   found that his duties as abbot seriously interfered with his work of   
   translation, and after he had directed Iviron for fourteen years he resigned   
   his   
   charge, on the plea that the church of his people was crying out for more   
   books   
   that only he could efficiently supply.   
      
   Unfortunately his successor in the abbacy precipitated disturbances between   
   Iberians and Greeks among the monks, and St. Euthymius was summoned to   
   Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine VIII to explain the situation.   
   While   
   there he was thrown from his mule and sustained injuries from which he died,   
   on   
   May 13, 1028. His body was taken back to Mount Athos, and eventually   
   enshrined   
   in the church of the All-Holy Mother of God.   
      
   For bibliographical notes, see July 12, loc. cit. A French translation of   
   the   
   life by George the Hagiorite was published in Irénikon, vol. vi, no. 5, vol.   
   vii, nos. 1, 2 and 4 (1929-30). "Hagiorite" (the epithet is also given to   
   St.   
   Euthymius's father, St. John) means Athonite, Mount Athos being commonly   
   called   
   in Greek Hagion Oros, the Holy Mountain. Iviron still exists as a monastery   
   of   
   the Orthodox Church, but Iberian monks have been long ago displaced by   
   Greeks.   
      
      
   Also Today:   
   May 13th - Our Lady of Fatima   
      
   The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared six times to three   
   shepherd   
   children ("the Three Seers") near the town of Fatima, Portugal between May   
   13th   
   and October 13th 1917. Appearing to the children, the Blessed Virgin told   
   them   
   that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child   
   living in our century. Coming at a time when civilization was torn asunder   
   by   
   war and bloody violence, She promised that Heaven would grant peace to all   
   the   
   world if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and   
   obeyed.   
   "If My requests are granted ... there will be peace"   
      
   Our Lady of Fatima explained to the children that war is a punishment for   
   sin   
   and warned that God would further castigate the world for its disobedience   
   to   
   His Will by means of war, hunger and the persecution of the Church, the Holy   
   Father and the Catholic Faithful. God's Mother prophesied that Russia would   
   be   
   God's chosen "instrument of chastisement," spreading the "errors" of atheism   
   and   
   materialism across the earth, fomenting wars, annihilating nations and   
   persecuting the Faithful everywhere.   
      
   In all Her appearances at Fatima, the Blessed Mother repeatedly emphasized   
   the   
   necessity of praying the Rosary daily, of wearing the Brown Scapular of   
   Mount   
   Carmel and of performing acts of reparation and sacrifice. To prevent the   
   terrible chastisement at the hands of Russia and to convert "that poor   
   nation",   
   Our Lady requested the solemn public Consecration of Russia to Her   
   Immaculate   
   Heart by the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world. She also asked   
   that   
   the Faithful practice a new devotion of reparation on the first Saturday of   
   five   
   consecutive months ("the Five First Saturdays")   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the   
   blessing of heaven.   
   --G. C. Lichtenberg   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you,   
   not   
   sparing the flock. 30 And of your own selves shall arise men speaking   
   perverse   
   things, to draw away disciples after them. 31 Therefore watch, keeping in   
   memory, that for three years I ceased not, with tears to admonish every one   
   of   
   you night and day. 32 And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his   
   grace, who is able to build up, and to give an inheritance among all the   
   sanctified.  (Acts 20:29-32)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Born as a son,   
   led forth as a lamb,   
   sacrificed as a sheep,   
   buried as a man,   
   He rose from the dead as a God,   
   for He was by nature God and Man.   
   He is all things: He judges, and so He is Law;   
   He teaches, and so He is Word;   
   He saves, and so He is Grace;   
   He begets, and so He is Father,   
   He is begotten, and so He is Son;   
   He suffers, and so He is Sacrifice;   
   He is buried, and so He is Man;   
   He rises again, and so He is God.   
   This is Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs Glory for all ages.   
      
   -- by Saint Melito of Sardis   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)