Saint Eustratius the Wonderworker was a ninth-century Byzantine monastic from the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor, remembered as an abbot granted the gift of wonderworking. He is commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox calendar on January 9.
According to the synaxarion, Eustratius left his parents' home secretly at the age of twenty and entered monastic life at the Abgar (Avgaron) monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor, where he embraced a strict ascetic discipline of bread and water and nights spent in prayer. He is traditionally dated to his repose in the year 821.
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9th centuryBirth at TarsusEustratius is born in the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor.
age 20Entry into monastic lifeHe secretly leaves his parents' home and settles at the Abgar (Avgaron) monastery on Mount Olympus, taking up a strict ascetic life of bread, water, and nightly prayer.
821ReposeSaint Eustratius the Wonderworker reposes; his death is traditionally dated to the year 821.
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Monastic Life
The synaxarion relates that Eustratius came from the city of Tarsus and, at twenty years of age, secretly departed his parents' home to take up the monastic life. He settled at the Abgar monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor.
There he is said to have lived a strict ascetic life, eating only bread and water and devoting his nights to prayer. He is remembered as an abbot of the region of Tarsus to whom the gift of wonderworking was granted, an epithet preserved in his commemoration.
Family
The Venerable Basil and Gregory, themselves remembered as wonderworkers of the ninth century, are identified in liturgical sources as uncles of Saint Eustratius. Tradition notes that Gregory was a monk at the Monastery of Avgaron (Auguron), situating the family's monastic life on or near Mount Olympus in Asia Minor.
Commemoration
Eustratius is commemorated on January 9, on which day he is listed among the saints of the feast alongside the Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene, Saint Philip of Moscow, the Prophet Shemaiah, and Saint Peter of Sebaste.
Beyond these commemorative facts, little biographical detail survives. He is a genuinely obscure ninth-century Byzantine monastic, and the surviving record of his life is correspondingly brief.
