Venerable Euphrosynus (IX)

The Venerable Euphrosynus was a monk of one of the monasteries of Palestine and carried out his obedience in the kitchen. He served the brethren diligently, while in his mind he never departed from God. The saint’s patience was astonishing: he bore without complaint every reproach, very often undeserved. A fervent man of prayer and a strict faster, Euphrosynus advanced greatly in the spiritual life through hidden labour and pleased the Lord, which the King of heaven Himself revealed to the brotherhood of the monastery: one of the priests of the monastery asked in prayer to be made worthy to see the eternal blessedness prepared for the righteous. God heard him and showed him in his sleep the indescribable beauty of paradise. Suddenly the hieromonk noticed a monk of his own monastery, the cook Euphrosynus, and, amazed at such a meeting, asked him how he came to be there. “By the ineffable mercy of God!” the saint answered. The priest asked him whether he had the boldness to give him something from this garden. Euphrosynus invited him to choose whatever he wished. The priest pointed to some beautiful apples. The humble monk picked three fruits from the tree of paradise, wrapped them in a cloth and handed them to him. Waking before Matins, the father took the vision for an ordinary dream, but soon his attention was caught by the wonderfully fragrant apples wrapped in the cloth. The priest found the Venerable Euphrosynus in the church and asked him to reveal where he had been during the night. The blessed one answered: “I was there where thou wast. The Lord fulfilled thy request, showed thee paradise and gave thee its fruits too by the hand of His unworthy servant Euphrosynus.” After Matins the priest told all this to the brethren, revealed before them the spiritual height of Saint Euphrosynus, the hidden God-pleaser, and showed them the fruits of paradise. Shaken by what they heard, the monks hastened to the kitchen to bow down before the holy father, but he was nowhere to be found: the blessed one had fled from human glory and left the monastery. Where their fellow ascetic had gone remained unknown to the brethren, but they always remembered that by God’s ineffable mercy the gates of paradise were open to Euphrosynus, and that the saved would meet him there. The monks kept the apples of paradise with reverence and gave them out in small pieces for the healing of illnesses of soul and body.