Saint of the Day

He was born to devout and noble parents in Phrygia. Though his father was a prominent officer, he entered monastic life when young, and became abbot of a monastery in Amasea at the age of thirty. In 553 he was sent to the Fifth Ecumenical Council as the representative of the Metropolitan of Amasea. At the Council, he was one of those who argued, successfully, that heretics could be anathematized after their deaths. The most prominent case in point was Origen, the brilliant Christian philosopher who had written that all will eventually be saved. Eutychius' position thus earned him the enmity of the Origenists, who still made up an influential group in the Church. Saint Eutychius became a trusted confidante of the Emperor Justinian, and when Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople, reposed, Eutychius was chosen to replace him. Eutychius ruled in peace for twelve years, but was then cast into controversy when he boldly opposed one of the most hard-to-pronounce heresies in the history of the Church: Aphthartodocetism, the belief that Christ, before his resurrection, possessed an incorruptible body, not subject to hunger, thirst or pain (though the scriptures plainly speak of Christ being weary, hungry, thirsty, weeping). The Emperor Justinian for a time fell into this variant of the Monophysite heresy, and exiled Eutychius to his monastery for twelve years. During these years Eutychius showed himself to be a wonder-worker, healing many of their diseases through his prayers. Justinian repented shortly before his death, and his successor, Justin II, called Eutychius back to the Patriarchal throne, where he served the Church in peace until his repose at the age of seventy.

He is also called 'Mark the Athenian' because he was born in Athens. When his parents died, he pondered the transience of all earthly things, gave his goods to the poor, and embarked on a plank in the sea, asking God to lead him wherever He desired. By God's providence, Mark was cast up on the shores of Libya, where he settled as a hermit on a mountain called Trache. (Some say it was in Ethiopia, but this seems less likely.) There he lived for ninety-five years, never seeing another human being.
  Saint Serapion visited him before his death and recorded his life. Serapion asked Mark if there were any Christians whose faith was so great that they could say to a mountain 'Get up and cast yourself into the sea,' and it would be so. Immediately the mountain on which they stood began to move like a wave, but Mark raised his hand and stilled it.
  On his deathbed, St Mark prayed for the salvation of all men and gave up his soul to God. Saint Serapion saw an angel carrying Mark's soul, and a hand extended from heaven to receive it. Saint Mark was about 130 years old when he reposed.

This is the monk who met St Mary of Egypt in the desert and preserved her story (See April 1). He reposed in peace at the age of 100, sometime in the sixth century.

Born in 1866, he married and had three children. In 1920, at the age of 54, he and his wife quietly separated and each entered monastic life. Eventually he became the spiritual father of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, where, as a clairvoyant staretz, he also confessed thousands of laity. He said, "I am the storage room where people's afflictions gather." In imitation of his patron saint, he prayed for a thousand nights on a rock before an icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov. He reposed in the Lord in 1949 and the Church of Russia glorified him in August of 2000. Thus his whole life as a monk was spent under Communist persecution.

Very little is known of him. He took up the monastic life while still very young, and gave himself without reserve to the ascetical struggle, so much so that in the virtues of humility and obedience it was said that he exceeded 'not only the brethren, but all men.' In time, he became abbot of a monastery. During the iconoclast heresy, he stood unswervingly for the holy icons. Both in his own lifetime and after his death he was endowed with the gift of wonderworking. He reposed in peace sometime in the ninth century.