Early Life and Formation
Euthymios was born Eustratios Agritellis on July 6, 1876, in the village of Parakoula on the island of Lesbos. At the age of nine he entered the Leimonias school housed within Leimonos Monastery, from which he graduated in 1892.
He was tonsured a monk by Archimandrite Anthimos (Georgiellis), receiving the monastic name Euthymios. From 1900 to 1907 he studied at the Theological School of Halki, where he was ordained deacon in 1906 by Metropolitan Agathangelos of Grevena and completed a thesis titled 'The Purpose of Monastic Life in the East Until the 9th Century AD' in 1907.
Ministry and Episcopate
After his studies he served as headmaster of the Leimonos School and as an itinerant preacher for the Metropolis of Methymna from 1909 to 1910. He was ordained priest in 1910 by Metropolitan Stephen (Soulidis) and served as Protosyngellos of the Metropolis of Methymna until 1912.
On June 12, 1912, he was consecrated Bishop of Zela in Constantinople. In this office he effectively governed the Metropolis of Amasya, overseeing 340 Orthodox communities with more than 130,000 faithful. He founded numerous churches, schools for boys and girls, and community organizations, particularly in the Pafra district from 1913 onward.
Amid the persecutions of the Greek population of Asia Minor, he participated in organizing resistance, including a gathering in 1919 of some 12,000 insurgents.
Imprisonment and Martyrdom
Euthymios was arrested by Kemalist forces on January 21, 1921, and imprisoned in the Souyia prison in Amasya. On April 18, 1921, after consoling his fellow detainees, he was isolated in the prison basement.
He died on May 29, 1921, exhausted by 41 days of isolation, deprivation, and ill-treatment. His body was subsequently hanged in the central square before being buried quietly in the courtyard of the adjacent church.
Canonization and Legacy
Euthymios was declared an ethnomartyr and saint by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece on November 4, 1992. He is commemorated among the hierarchs who perished in the Asia Minor Catastrophe, together with Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna.
A bronze bust was unveiled in his honor on May 30, 1936, on the fifteenth anniversary of his martyrdom, and a chapel dedicated to him was erected at Leimonos Monastery in 1998. Fifty handwritten manuscripts composed by him are preserved at Leimonos Monastery. His feast is kept on May 29, the date of his repose, and on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
