Hieromartyr Eutyches

Discipleship and Apostolic Standing

The surviving accounts describe Eutyches as a man of the first century who came to faith through the apostolic preaching. He is remembered first as a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, who entrusted him with pastoral care of the Church, and later as a companion of the Apostle Paul, with whom he preached on early journeys.

Although he was not one of the Seventy Apostles, the tradition styles him an apostle because of his missionary labors with the older apostles, who ordained him to the episcopate.

Sufferings and Martyrdom

Eutyches' commemoration as a hieromartyr rests on the many sufferings recorded of him: he was afflicted with hunger, beaten with iron rods, thrown into fire, and given over to wild beasts. The accounts preserve a wonder in which a beast set upon him spoke with a human voice and praised God, leaving the crowd amazed.

By the synaxarion's account he finished his course in his native region, where he was beheaded with a sword at the beginning of the second century.

Sources and Tradition

The episodes of his life are drawn from early synaxarial accounts, some of which connect his story to the Acts of the Apostle John attributed to John's disciple Prochoros. The details of his birthplace and the manner of his death differ somewhat among the sources, as is common for saints of the apostolic age.