Laura of Euthymius


The Laura of Euthymius was a laura in the present-day West Bank founded by Saint Euthymius the Great in 420.

Lavra

Under St Euthymius (428-473)

The church was consecrated by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem on 7 May 428. The lavra, a cluster of cells for hermits around a church, was located in Adummim on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and was based on the layout of the Pharan lavra, with small cells. The vita of the founder, also known as Euthymius of Lesser Armenia, mentions him living his first years as a monk in the Holy Land at Pharan.

Byzantine period after Euthymius

Following the death of Euthymius on 20 January 473 the church was converted to a refectory and a new church and cenobium were built above it. The ceonobium was the area that novitiate monks would receive training prior to admittance to a lavra of the Sabaite tradition. The new church was consecrated by Martyrius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 482 and the site thereafter became known as the Monastery of St. Euthymius. The lavra, ruined by an earthquake in 660, was rebuilt in a similar manner.

Crusader period

In 1106 Abbot Daniel noted: "To the east of the laura of St. Saba, only behind the mountain, is the Monastery of St. Euthymius, three versts away, and there lies St. Euthymius, and many other holy fathers lie there, and their bodies are as those of living people. There is a little monastery on a level place, and about it are rocky mountains some distance off. The monastery was established with a surrounding wall and the church was elevated. And there is quite close to it the Monastery of St. Theoctistus, under the mountain only half a day’s walk from the Monastery of Euthymius, and all this has been destroyed now by pagans”.)
The monastic complex went through a massive restoration and construction phase in the 12th century during the Crusader period, but was finally abandoned in the next century.

Significance

The Laura at Euthymius was essential in the advancement and organisation of the Sabaite movement, and was central to the development of the non-Chalcedonian orthodoxy and miaphysism within Palestinian monasticism and Oriental Orthodoxy.

Caravanserai (Khan al-Ahmar)

After the abandonment of the monastery in the 13th century, the structures were converted during the same century into a travellers' inn, known as Khan al-Ahmar, a caravanserai for Muslim pilgrims on the route between Jerusalem and Mecca via Nabi Musa.

Access

The site is east of Mishor Adumim, the industrial zone of Ma'ale Adumim, and is accessible to visit.