Acta Sanctorum

Eustratius Thaumaturgos

9 January · vita
St. Eustratius the Wonderworker (d. ca. 9th century), from Tarsia in Bithynia, became a monk at the monastery of Augarus on Mount Olympus. He endured the Iconoclast persecution under Emperor Leo V and was renowned for innumerable miracles. He governed his monastery and died at age ninety-five after a life of extreme asceticism. 9th century

LIFE OF ST. EUSTRATIUS THE WONDERWORKER,

From the Greek Menaion.

Ninth century.

Life

Eustratius the Wonderworker, in Bithynia (St.)

From various sources.

[1] Eustratius, from Tarsia (so the region is designated, subject to the Order of the Optimates), from the village of Bitzianus, born of most devout and prosperous parents, George and Megetho; The homeland, parents, and education of St. Eustratius having been honorably raised and educated by them, when he had completed his twentieth year, inflamed with heavenly ardor, he fled from his parents and went to the region of Olympus, to the monastery of Augarus, in which his uncles Gregory and Basilius shone in every kind and exercise of virtue. Received by them and having his hair tonsured, he embraced that laborious manner of monastic life. Monastic life

[2] Having attained his desire, with the utmost cheerfulness of spirit and humility of mind, taking absolutely no thought for the present life, Religious virtues he ministered to all the brethren in the most menial tasks, retaining nothing except a hair-cloth cowl and a sheepskin, in which he would take sleep for a short time wherever night overtook him; for he chose no fixed place for resting. His manner of sleeping It is reported that he never lay on his back after he bade farewell to worldly things, nor in all the seventy-five years during which he ran the course of his life and the contest of his exercises did he ever lay his body on its left side when preparing to sleep.

[3] His governance When those holy men who had presided over the monastery had departed this life, the care of the monastery was entrusted to this eminent man, the brethren themselves having prevailed upon him to accept the governance. But after that monstrous and rightly so-named Leo, returning from the Bulgarian war, seized the empire of the most devout Prince Michael -- Michael indeed, who had received him most humanely, he deprived of wife and children, held in chains, tonsured into a monk, and cast into exile on an island lying opposite -- and attempted to revive the previously dormant sect of the Iconoclasts; His labors for the Church when all others were abandoning their dwellings in the monasteries and solitudes, Eustratius himself, at the exhortation of the great Joannicius, came to his homeland.

[4] When thereafter the worship and veneration of sacred images was restored to the Church, the holy Fathers also, illustrious for signs and miracles, returned each to his own little dwelling; His return to the monastery at which time this divine Eustratius also returned to his monastery; where throughout the days he aided the labors of the brethren with his own labor; but he spent the nights in sleepless vigil, kneeling in prayer. His holiness And likewise, while the customary divine odes of the Psalms were being chanted, he himself would constantly cry out "Kyrie eleison" by himself within the sanctuary. The wondrous works that he performed, on account of their enormous number, cannot be set down in writing even in summary, His miracles yet they were certain proof of how greatly God approved of his labors.

[5] At length, about to depart from this world, he assembled those who had lived under his governance and addressed them in these words: His last admonitions "Brethren, I stand at the border of death. I earnestly and repeatedly exhort and entreat you to faithfully guard the deposit you have received, knowing full well that all present things are fleeting, but the things to come are everlasting. Strive therefore to be enrolled among the number of the Blessed." Having spoken thus and having prayed well for all, he signed them with the cross; and raising his eyes to heaven, he said: "Into your hands, His death O Lord, I commend my spirit." And lulled by a welcome sleep of repose, he fell asleep in the Lord, having lived ninety-five years. May God, through his intercession, bestow mercy upon us. Amen.

Annotations

Notes

a. Eustrasius is the name used by Baronius in vol. 9 of the Annals of the Church, year of Christ 821, no. 49, where he rightly observes that this Eustratius is different from that other Eustrasius, a monastic Superior, who had secretly fallen into heresy and was corrected by St. Theodore the Studite (whose letter to him Baronius recites there, no. 47). This Eustratius is mentioned in the acts of St. Joannicius cited by Baronius, as found in Lipomanus and Surius; and as Eustratios in a Greek manuscript of the Royal Medical Library of the King of France.
b. "This is not," says Raderus, "Cilicia, nor is the village of Bitzianus in Cilicia, but a city of Calabria, called Caprasia by Antoninus, as Gabriel Barrius teaches." It is described by Leander Alberti as follows: "Tarsia, six miles from Bisignano, among the mountains, is, as the inhabitants report, an ancient and wealthy and populous town, with a territory fertile in things useful for life. The Crathis flows by on the left." Cluverius observes in bk. 4 of his Ancient Italy that this Tarsia, from the course of the itinerary, the interval of miles, and a certain similarity of name, is the Caprasia of the Table, or Caprasias in the plural of Antoninus. But that it is the third Tarsia, a region of Bithynia, that is treated here, is beyond doubt for us, since St. Joannicius too was a native of Bithynia, and the remaining details concerning Mount Olympus, the monastery of the Agaurians, etc., agree. Stephanus also places Tarsus, or Tarseia, or Taesia, as a city and region of Bithynia. Tarsia is a region of Asia Minor near Bithynia according to Porphyrogennetus, and a city near Nicomedia according to Nicetas in Ortelius.
c. Of the twelve mountains bearing the name Olympus, this is the one which Ptolemy in bk. 5 of his Geography, ch. 1, calls Mount Olympus of Mysia. For thus the author of the life of St. Joannicius writes: "When he had seen the mountain which rises on the right side of Bithynia, which is called Olympus among us, he conceived in his mind the quiet life that loves solitude." This will be further confirmed in what follows.
d. In Greek: "to the monastery of Augarus." In the life of St. Joannicius: "In passing (from Mount Olympus), when he had come to the monastery of the Agaurians" -- with the letter transposed. In the Medicean Greek manuscript: "having visited the monastery of the Agaurians."
e. To this same Father Gregory, the Superior of the monastery (called Proestos by the Greeks), St. Joannicius opened his mind about embracing the solitary life; for whom Gregory erected a rough dwelling "to serve as a small shelter from the rains and snows, in which Joannicius enclosed himself."
f. Basilius, together with Gregory, is recorded to have been cast into prison for confessing the truth, in the letter of St. Theodore the Studite to his brother Athanasius, in Baronius at the year of Christ 809, no. 32, where among other things: "Why are the brothers Naucratius and Arsenius held in close custody to this day, and likewise Basilius and Gregory? Why was that virtue-loving Superior Stephanus, together with fifty-six disciples, expelled from the monastery, since together with one hundred and ten, and with the one who had formerly been Bishop, he had condemned the Moechian Synod with anathema as a violation of the Gospel?" And below: "Why was Brother Aemilianus led in chains from the territory of Nicomedia to Thynia (that is, Bithynia), and subjected to beatings and mockery, after the monastery had been plundered by those who burst in?" etc. The time, place, and religious profession of both correspond. Raderus therefore suspects in vain that there is an error in these Acts of Eustratius, as if Saints Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, and Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, were said to have been his uncles. Whether these two are honored by the Greeks, and on what day, is unknown to us. Their contemporary was St. Gregory of Acrita, whom we gave on January 5. Could perhaps one of them be St. Basil "at the deep waters," who is celebrated on the Kalends of July?
g. Leo the Armenian seized the empire in July of the year 813. He reigned for seven years and five months, and was killed on Christmas Day in the year 820.
h. Michael Curopalates held the empire from October 5, 811, until July of the year 813, when he was defeated by the Bulgars; he was an excellent Prince.
i. These were Theophylactus, the elder, and St. Ignatius, later Patriarch of Constantinople (concerning whom, October 23), whom Leo ordered to be castrated.
k. The island is called Prote, or Princeps, by Cedrenus and Baronius at the year of Christ 813, no. 11.
l. We shall give the life of St. Joannicius on November 4; Baronius teaches that it was most faithfully recorded by an author of the same period, at the year 823, no. 22, and at the year 825, no. 64, and at the year 846, no. 28. St. Eustratius is described as a zealous imitator of his virtues in these words: "For a certain man named Eustratius, who practiced the same manner of life as the Blessed one, was affected with great zeal toward him, and was spurred on to imitate him, and thought it of the greatest value to see the things that were done by the Saint. Having therefore followed him on one occasion, when he was about to render his customary prayers to the Lord, and having hidden himself as best he could so as not to be seen by him, and having remained there for the entire time of the prayer, he was amazed indeed at how ardently and vehemently he was intent upon prayer; but he was also amazed at what divine favor was shown toward him: for he was seen not only to be elevated in spirit but also in body, rising above earthly things. When the Blessed one learned of this, far from praising him for it, he even suspected him of having done something from curiosity, and sternly rebuked him, saying: 'The malignant one shall not dwell near you.' Meanwhile, he attributed his own miracles to the prayers of Eustratius. For those who encountered him did not see him unless he himself willed it. And so that Eustratius, who followed him, might have an example of humility, whenever he was not seen by those who came upon him, he would turn to Eustratius and say: 'By your prayers, O brother Eustratius, I was not even noticed by them.'"
m. In the life of St. Joannicius, it is said that Eustratius withdrew from his office of governance in order to avoid the way of the impious; since a certain Antonius, who had joined the heretics, was then presiding over the monastery of the Agaurians -- though he was later converted by St. Joannicius. "But Eustratius," says the author, "from the monastery of the Agaurians, captivated by love of him, since he could not remain in the region (for that divine love compelled him, and the zeal for the holy images greatly inflamed him), when he had come to him and waited for nothing more than the customary prayer, immediately inquired whether the reign of Leo would last long. But Joannicius, seeing him moved by great emotion of soul, because he felt the greatest grief over the divine images (for this Leo was impious toward them, as much as any other), and had therefore hastened to put the question, did not hesitate or ponder his response; but, as one who searched the depths of the Spirit, he both foretold the overthrow of Leo, which would come not long hence, and predicted future events. For not long afterward, when Leo had been removed from the scene, Michael seized the empire; who did not indeed increase the persecution against Christians, but allowed the Church to remain under the heretics -- since he had not entirely embraced the heresy of the Iconoclasts, but had become softer in his zeal for it, so that he even appeared benign to many; nor did he initiate any orthodox doctrine -- so that it came about that he neither abstained from the vice nor defended the faith, but maliciously allowed the heresy to grow while the orthodox faith diminished and ebbed away. And this was indeed the state of affairs. But after Leo was killed, Eustratius came again with a certain other man to this divine man, reporting to him the outcome of those things which he himself had predicted. And some time was spent by them in conversation. A certain man named Elias, who was practicing the ascetic life not far from the Saint, received the great Joannicius at a feast, together with those who had come with Eustratius."
n. These deeds earned him the name of Wonderworker; whether they are gnawed by moths elsewhere is unknown to us. We believe, however, that they were recorded in writing.
o. The year in which he died is uncertain. St. Joannicius died in the fifth year of Michael III, the year of Christ 846, at the age of 115, having been born in the fourteenth year of Leo the Isaurian, the year of Christ 731.

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