Many of the saints of our Church were in the dark years of the Turkish rule teachers of our Genus. One of them is Saint Eugene of Aitolos, a great spiritual and charismatic personality, who put his own stamp on the defense of Orthodoxy and the cause of education of our subjugated Orthodox Greek people.
Live him 17ο century, in the era of the harshest slavery for the enslaved peoples of the Ottoman empire. He was born in the village Great Tree, close to Thermo of Aetolia ensures 1597. In the famous village where the other great man of Aetolia was later born Cosmas the Aetolos. He came from poor, but pious parents, the Nicholas and I stand with the last name Giannoulis. He was orphaned and his father remarried, but his stepmother abused him. From a young age he had two desires, the solitary life and learning. So very young he came to her monastery Panagia Vlochou, near Agrinio. There he learned the first letters and church music from the learned Elder Arsenic, with whom he was connected by friendship. Then he followed Arsenius to Agrapha. They ended up at Monastery of Trovato Agrafon, where there were two virtuous and literate Elders, Antonio and Bartholomew, to increase his grammatical knowledge and initiate the solitary life. It should be noted that the area of Agrafa had become a focus of spiritual rebirth in enslaved Greece, due to the relaxed Turkish slavery there.
At the age of just seventeen, in 1616, he went to fame Monastery of Tatarni, where he became a monk and after two years was ordained a deacon. Then he followed the Elder Arsenius to Mount Athos and settled in Holy Monastery of Xiropotamos, where he met and became associated with the attending bishop Charalambi. There he learned the ancient Greek language and the other sciences. He studied the ancient classical authors in depth. When he finished his studies there, he returned to Agrafa to Trovatou Monastery, walking for many days.
In 1619 went to Alexandria, where he was ordained an elder by the dynamic Patriarch of Alexandria (and later Ecumenical Patriarch) Kyrillo Lukari, with whom he was associated with deep friendship and devotion and then to Sinai Holy Monastery of the theovadist term. Then he went on a pilgrimage to Holy Places, where he served from 1619 until 1622 as vicar of the patriarchal chapel of Agios Konstantinos. There he united his own struggle with the struggle of the Holy Sepulcher fathers for the rescue of the Holy Pilgrimages and especially of the Holy Sepulcher from the unholy machinations of heretical papists and Armenians.
But because he wanted to complete his studies and help the enslaved Genos, he returned to Greece and attended schools, initially in Trikala and then to Kefalonia, where he studied under the wise teacher Paisio Metaxas. Then on Zakynthos, where he studied under the famous teacher Theofilos Korydaleas, where she stayed with him seven years, from 1629 until1636. He had already emerged as a great intellectual personality.
In 1636, the new Ecumenical Patriarch Cyril Loukaris, who had just ascended the patriarchal throne, decided to upgrade the patriarchy Great School of the Nation. That is why he invited Theofilos Korydaleas to take over the direction of the School. Theophilus also took with him Eugene, who
placed as vicar at Temple of Kontoskalio. Soon after he studied under the teacher Syrigos Study, but again allowed Korydaleos. Patriarch Kyrillos took him to him, as his direct collaborator. This was the occasion for him to experience the adventures and persecutions of the martyred Patriarch up close, due to his adherence to Orthodoxy. He also lived his martyrdom, he was an eyewitness to his strangulation by the Janissaries, following the machinations of the heretical Jesuits of Polis. He is the one who then composed the sequence in his honor!
Afterwards, Eugene himself suffered persecution, as a friend and collaborator of Loukareos, by the Turkophile and Latinophile Patriarch Kyrillo Kontari, who deposed him! But the 1639, after the restoration of church order, the new Patriarch Parthenios AHe solemnly restored him.
But he thought that his enslaved compatriots needed him. He considered that Genos needed education to awaken and that his own resources should be given to his brothers. That is why he left the city and settled in ARTA, where he directed the school there until 1640. It 1641 we find him a teacher at Aetolian, where he suffered and was imprisoned by the Turks and then in Messolonghi, where he taught until 1645.
Shortly after he left for the Karpenisi, where he erected a large Church of the Holy Trinity and in its vicinity he founded the famous School of Higher Letters, which became a center of spiritual renaissance in the wider region and from which great personalities graduated, such as the famous teacher of Genus Anastasios Gordios.
In Karpenisi he received a merciless war from people who did not want the development of education. That's why at 1661 went to Vrangiana of Evrytania, where he founded the great school there in Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, which was later named "Greek Museum of Agrafon». Alongside his teaching duties there, he also carried out rich missionary and spiritual work. By his own actions, a school was also founded in Aitoliko.
In 1675 he returned to Karpenisi, where he taught for some time. He wandered into Nafpaktos, Messolonghi, and Aitoliko, turned to Monastery of Tatarna, where he remained a short time for his personal rest and contemplation. He then went up again to Vrangiana, where he taught at the School until 1680.
The 1682 fell ill and slept peacefully on August 5, the eve of the Transfiguration of the Savior. He was buried in the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, in a tomb that he himself had prepared beforehand. He was canonized in 1982 and his memory was set to be celebrated on August 5. His hymn sequence was composed by the well-known monk hymn writer Gerasimos Mikrayannanitis.
Saint Eugene was a charismatic ecclesiastical and spiritual personality. An enlightened man, and a dedicated cleric, completely committed to Orthodoxy, for which he fought hard to save it from the clutches of the heretical Western papists and Protestants. He left us a remarkable work of writing and letters of great importance, which exude the aroma of genuine Orthodoxy and profound knowledge of Greek. He is counted among the Teachers of the Genus and among the great ecclesiastical leaders of our Church.
Photo By Georgios Pazios (Alaniaris) – Own work, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7227888, https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/
