Venerable
Venerable Eumenius of Gortyna, Bishop
VII век, †ок. 668
Venerable Eumenius, Bishop of Gortyna — a 7th-century Cretan hierarch known for pastoral mercy and the gift of miracles, exiled by Emperor Constans II to the Thebaid desert for opposing the Monothelite heresy, where he died around 668; despite his episcopal rank, he is liturgically venerated among the ranks of the venerable (preподобные).
Venerable Eumenius led a virtuous ascetic life from his youth, distributing his property to the poor, before being chosen bishop of Gortyna — the metropolitan see of Crete. As a hierarch he became renowned for compassion toward orphans and the poor, was granted the gift of continual tears, and was credited with miracles — healing the sick, casting out demons, ending a drought through prayer; tradition holds he reconciled two warring sons of Emperor Heraclius in a succession dispute. For his firm opposition to the Monothelite heresy (the teaching of a single will in Christ), promoted by Emperor Constans II through the "Typos" (648), he was exiled to the Thebaid desert in Egypt, where he died around 668. His relics were later returned to Crete and buried near Gortyna, at a site called Raxos. The principal hagiographic sources are the Synaxarion of Constantinople, the Menologion of Emperor Basil II, and a canon by Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer. His memory is kept on September 18/October 1.
NOTE: the name "Eumenius" sounds similar to "Euthymius" in Russian transliteration, considered a likely source of confusion behind a separate, unconfirmed entry "euthymius_of_crete" ("Euthymius of Crete") in this database — no source on Eumenius of Gortyna ever calls him "Euthymius"; the two saints remain separate entries without being merged.