Hieromartyr Eutyches / Eutychus – Aug 24 I Brought Back to Life by St Paul

Eutychus, whose name means ‘fortunate’, was a disciple and friend of St John the Theologian and St Paul. After hearing about Christ, the Savior, he became a disciple and servant of the Lord, worked with the Apostle Paul and together they preached in the early journeys. He belonged to the Palestinian city of Sebaste. He travelled widely in the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, suffering many imprisonments and tortures. He can be called an Apostle because of his labors with the older Apostles, by whom he was made bishop.  

Eutychus, fell out of a window, and had the fortune of experiencing a miracle immediately afterwards. St Luke, the physician evangelist, was eyewitness to this incident, plainly states that Eutychus was dead, in Acts 20: 7–12. Towards the end of the third missionary journey, St Paul spend a week in Troas, and “on the first day of the week we came together to break bread”. Paul addressed, the people and kept on talking until midnight, as he intended to leave the next day. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, fell into deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘He’s alive!’ Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. After Eutychus was restored to life, the Church in Troas had a fellowship meal, Paul continued preaching. Eutychus’s friends and family took the young man home alive and were ‘greatly comforted’ to not be planning a funeral (Acts 20: 12).  

The fall from the third-story window had been fatal for the young man. But Paul, a true apostle of Jesus Christ, was given the power to raise Eutychus back to life again, like the other miracles recorded in the Bible by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17–24), Elisha (2 Kings 4:32–37), Peter (Acts 9:36–42), and, of course, Jesus Himself (Luke 8:49–56; John 11).

Luke includes the story in order to show the great, life-giving power of God and to further authenticate Paul’s message as one who had “the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles” (2 Corinthians 12:12). He preached the Gospel in many places, pulled down the idols’ temples, and suffered imprisonments and many torments at the hands of the idolaters. St Eutyches underwent many sufferings: they starved him with hunger, beat him with iron rods, they threw him into the fire, and then to be devoured by wild beasts. Once, a lion was let loose upon the saint, which astonished everyone because it praised the Creator with a human voice. He was beheaded, and he reposed in peace “in deep old age.” The Hieromartyr Eutyches completed his labors in his native city, Sebastia, the place of his birth, near Tarsus, where he was beheaded with a sword at the beginning of the second century.

Eutyches was a successor of the Apostles, he shared in the ways of the Apostles, became a successor to their throne and an excellent example to bishops and glorified as a martyr.  Through the practice of virtue, he found the way to divine contemplation. By teaching the word of truth without error, he defended the Faith, even to the shedding of your blood.  He commemorated by the Orthodox Churches on Aug 24