St. Evdokimos of Vatopedi
(amateur
translation of an excerpt from the Encomium of the Saint written by Fr.
Meletios the Hierodeacon)
It appears that the Saint wanted to
hide his virtue and his holiness so much that he wished to die by
himself, fearing perhaps that the brothers of Vatopedi would find some
sign of holiness and want to honor him. He desired this because he
perceived being honored by men as a sin before God. So great was his
humble attitude that all of the vain things of this life, honors and
love of glory, he considered senseless. This is a great sign of his
holiness. This alone is enough, without requiring any other indication,
to believe that he is a Saint, and other miracles would be considered
unnecessary.
Why, as someone says, does a
life according to the will of God, “life for God” in other words, and
without any miracles occurring, bring the crown of holiness? For in his
life that is truly “for God”, he clearly wanted to hide while alive and
dead, without revealing it to anyone. Because he feared perhaps that
some sign would occur for others, something which is antithetical to the
commandments of the Gospel. This was the fear of St. Evdokimos.
For it is a great commandment
for one to hide his virtue. Most men wish to hide their sins and to
proclaim their virtues, though they are baseless. According to the
righteous word, we must flee from both. Hidden must be repentance, in
other words the rebuttal of sins, as they themselves occurred in secret.
And as someone sinned in secret, in secret he must have his struggles
against them. For to proclaim, however, one's virtues, and to not reveal
his sins is absurd. We are ashamed to reveal our sins in case we might
appear culpable and humiliated. How do we not fear the sin of pleasing
men with the promotion of our good deeds, which causes God to abandon
our soul? If we reveal the sins of our soul to God alone, let us not
proclaim our virtues to men. Because they will be seen as a reward for
our wrestling against the passions, and we would thus loose our portion
from God and become transgressors of His law.
St. Evdokimos, however, did
not do thus. For having been found to preserve with exactness one
commandment of the Gospel, did he not much more so keep the rest of the
Gospel's commandments? From this alone is revealed how he ruled over the
other moral passions. For to conquer love of glory and to hide one's
virtues is truly a super-human commandment. For the love of honor and
glory is implanted within [fallen] man, and they are uprooted with
difficulty. This we see in the Saints who lived before him, as we read
their lives. In other words, when they lived, they wished to remain
unknown and to hide. After their death, however, they did not hesitate
to reveal their holiness.
Something
similar we read in the lives of St. Alexios the Man of God, and St.
John the Hut-dweller, who left their parents signs that they might know
them after their death.
St. Evdokimos, however, as we
learned, conquered love of glory. Something which is even very difficult
to those who have reached the height of virtue. Because it was not
important to him to be seen by men as holy, but to be glorified by God.
But someone might say: “You wish to show us that this new Saint of
Vatopedi is higher than St. Alexios and St. John the Hut-dweller?” Not
at all, most holy Fathers. Because in holiness there is no comparison.
Do you know that, as it says in the Gospel: “In the house of my Father
there are many mansions”, for I further know that all receive the same
[reward].
What I am saying is that the
divine Evdokimos was a most-exact keeper of all the commandments of God.
He hid all of his virtues, because he feared the word of the Gospel,
“do not be thought of...”, in other words do not do something to be seen
by others. With keeping this word he conquered the greatest beast,
“glory”, in other words vanity and love of glory, which calls all of us
to esoteric agitation and great turmoils. This great beast, Evdomikos
conquered and defeated. In what way? By always hiding and by never
giving any sign of his holiness. In my opinion, this is the greatest
triumph of virtue, because I see the passion of love of glory as
unconquerable.
As you know, the once first of
the Angels was filled with pride, and dared to say: “I will place my
throne above the heavens, and I, myself will become the Exalted God.”
Was he not put in danger by love of glory, which I named an
unconquerable beast? And do not be surprised by the name. Because
whether we call it haughtiness, pride, conceit, glory, manic-glory,
work-for-glory, [doxarion], or love-of-glory, the name alone changes,
but we are talking about the same passion. The difference us found in in
the disposition in those that have it.
Did not Adam, for this glory,
imagine that he would become equal to God? And if for this passion of
glory angels became demons and devils, Adam won death, earthly and
heavenly creation was troubled, and the all-consuming Hades was
born...how is this passion of love of glory not great? For if the first
angel and first man conquered this passion, the universe would not have
been troubled, neither would death, which we tremble at and fear,
endanger us with its sickle. On account of love of glory, did not all
troubles of life enter the world? Most certainly! Because of this the
first angel and the first man were conquered.
This, however, did not conquer
Evdokimos, but he conquered it, because he hid his virtue and his
holiness “as the apple of his eye”. He achieved great victory and became
higher than the first angel and the first man. If we do not call
Evdokimos holy and do not honor him, and do not glorify him as a Saint, I
do not know who else to call, to honor or to glorify.
That his holy relic was
granted a heavenly fragrance, after so many signs of his virtue, and
after such a great victory against the devil, is another sign of his
holiness to those who think about divine things, as a friend wrote who
asked about St. Evdokimos. “However, he did not ultimately remain
unknown to the end, because God glorifies those who glorify Him.” Would
He therefore have glorified Adam and made the first angel incorrupt, had
they not been conquered by love of glory? Of course he would have
glorified them. But they lost the glory that they had, endangered by
their love of glory.
Our St. Evdokimos fled from
all love-of-glory throughout his whole life, and in his death, without
wishing to be glorified from God. God glorifies all His saints to praise
a life of virtue and godliness, and to censure a life of evil and
passion.
