Venerable Euphrosynus the Cook

Life

A simple man but a man of God. He served as a cook in a certain monastery in Amorium in the ninth century. The spiritual father of that monastery one night saw himself in Paradise, and there he beheld Euphrosynus. Euphrosynus picked three apples of Paradise for him and gave them as a gift. When the spiritual father awoke, he saw three apples of extraordinary beauty and fragrance by his pillow. He quickly found Euphrosynus and asked him: "Where were you last night, brother?" "There where you were, father," replied the blessed servant of God. Then the spiritual father announced the entire event to the monks, and all came to know the holiness and God-pleasingness of Euphrosynus. But Euphrosynus, fearing praise from men, immediately fled from the monastery and hid himself in the wilderness, where he lived out the remainder of his life.