147 Representations of travel motivation Euthymius’ first journeys may be referred to as educational mobility, as Euthymius is represented as seeking monastic training following a desire to become a monk. As we already observed for the Life of Gregory, to move away from the family in order to become a monk is a topos for nearly all monastic saints.488 Euthymius is represented as secretly walking away from his family and searching a spiritual father at Mount Olympus, first Ioannikios, and later John.489 The form of education sought by Euthymius stands in a long monastic ascetic tradition: since the early development of monasticism, evident for example in the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers (Apophthegmata Patrum), individual monks seek out elder and spiritually advanced ascetics for spiritual guidance.490 After Euthymius’ initial training in hesychia and ascesis, his ‘spiritual father’ John sent him to a cenobitic monastic community (koinobion) to continue his monastic training.491 Similar to the Life of Gregory, transitions between stages in monastic development involve mobility. This is especially evident from Euthymius’ transition from monastic training to spiritual maturation. Not only did the saint travel in order to advance in his spiritual development, the first stage of Euthymius’ monastic career, his monastic training, is also distinguished geographically from the later stages of the saint’s life. This perhaps allowed the hagiographer to emphasise that the saint literally and figuratively moved on to the next steps in his monastic career. That is, Euthymius’ educational mobility all took place in Asia Minor and was centred around Mount Olympus, whereas all of his later journeys took place in the regions of Mount Athos, Thessaloniki and the islands in the Aegean Sea, except for one return journey when he travelled to Mount Olympus to pick up his earlier spiritual mentor Theodore and to accompany him back to Mount Athos.492 The move away from Asia Minor to Mount Athos marked a transformation of the saint with regard to his monastic and spiritual development: Euthymius is represented as changing, together 488 Cf. pp. 22-23 of the Introduction. Unlike Gregory, Euthymius strictly severed contacts with his family initially – although after a while he did let his family know through a messenger that he became a monk; later (after 42 year) when he already was a monastic leader himself, he met with his family again and made provisions for them. Euthymius did not just walk away from his parental family, but also from his own wife and child, since he was already married prior to his monastic life (according to the hagiographer he married because of the duty he felt towards his family to ensure the continuation of the family line; once he fulfilled that duty, he felt free to pursue his wishes, that is to become a monk). Life of Euthymius 5-7, 15 and 37. 489 Life of Euthymius the Younger 7-8. 490 Vos (2020), p. 221. See also the discussion of journeys to famous figures for monastic paideia in Bitton-Ashkelony (2005), p. 140. 491 Comparing the Life of Gregory with the Life of Euthymius shows that there were multiple ways to become a monk and receive monastic training: Gregory immediately started his monastic training in a communal monastery; Euthymius first adopted the model of the desert fathers and sought out a spiritual father (perhaps in a lavra setting with multiple monks ‘living apart-together’, or just as a single disciple of a solitary monk) and later on continued his monastic training in a cenobitic monastic setting. Both saints at some point moved away from the monastic community in order to advance spiritually individually (or in the case of Euthymius initially together with another ascetic), to fight with demons and reach hesychia. On the various models of monastic education and monastic life, see Oltean (2020). 492 See discussion of the journey to Mount Olympus below, pp. 147-148. 3
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