Venerable Euthymius, founder of Dochiariou Monastery (Mount Athos—10th c.), and Venerable Neophytus, Co-founder of the Monastery

Saints Euthymius and Neophytus, founders of the Dochiariou Monastery on Mount Athos, an uncle and his nephew, belonged to the highest Byzantine aristocracy. Saint Euthymius, while still in the world, was the friend of Saint Athanasius of Mount Athos (July 5), and he later became a novice and disciple of the great ascetic. For his sincere love of the brethren, gentleness and his particular zeal in the ascetic life, Saint Athanasius granted the monk the duty of steward, which Saint Euthymius fulfilled as though entrusted to him by God Himself.

Saint Euthymius settled with several of the monks in the locale of Daphne, where he founded a monastery dedicated to Saint Nicholas, which he called Dochiariou in memory of his obedience. Guiding his own younger brethren, Saint Euthymius taught the necessity of attention towards self, to all the stirrings of the soul, explaining that the struggle of Christians, according to the Apostle Paul, is not “against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, and against the world-rulers of this darkness” (Eph 6:12).

The peaceful ascetic life of the monks was disturbed by the Saracens. The monk led all the brethren into the forest. Returning, they found the monastery razed to its very foundations. Saint Euthymius did not lose heart, and the monastery was rebuilt.

Saint Neophytus, in the world, was a companion of the emperor Nikēphóros Phocas (963-969). Upon the death of his parents he came to Mount Athos, where he was tonsured in the monastery of his uncle Saint Euthymius. Before his death, Saint Euthymius handed over the administration of the monastery to his nephew.

Under the spiritual guidance of Saint Neophytus, the small monastery grew into a Lavra. Asking the emperor Nikēphóros to become a benefactor of the monastery, Saint Neophytus enlarged the monastery to its present size. Saint Neophytus was deigned to be chosen “protos” (head of the governing Council of Elders of the Holy Mountain) and for many years he labored there. After taking leave of the Council in his declining years, he returned to the Dochiariou monastery, where peacefully he fell asleep in the Lord.