Monastery of Euthymius

The church was consecrated by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem on 7 May 428.Pringle (1993), page [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA229 229] 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.Hirschfeld (2001), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=O4pj9YNdgJYC&pg=PA342 342] 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 (406–11) at Pharan.Murphy-O'Connor (2008), p. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=de&id=cSuErBFmykQC&pg=PA335 335]

File:Star of David mosaic.jpg

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 cenobium was the area that novitiate monks would receive training prior to admittance to a lavra of the Sabaite tradition.Patrich (1995), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=OrZe96Bo9wUC&pg=PA265 265] The new church was consecrated by Martyrius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 482 and the site thereafter became known as the Monastery of St. Euthymius.Pringle (1993), page [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA230 230]

The lavra, ruined by an earthquake in 660, was rebuilt in a similar manner. Ancient testimonies speak of a Bedouin attack on the monastery in 796/97 as part of a series of such attacks against monasteries in Jerusalem and the Judean desert at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century, but archaeology in general tends to paint a picture of peaceful abandonment, rather than destruction brought about by man or nature.{{cite book |last= Bianchi |first= Davide |title= From the Byzantine period to Islamic rule: continuity and decline of monasticism beyond the River Jordan |page= 201 |work= A Shrine to Moses: A reappraisal of the Mount Nebo Monastic Complex between Byzantium and Islam |publisher= Austrian Academy of Sciences |location= Vienna |series= Philosophisch-Historische Klassedenkschriften, Vol. 527 / Archäologische Forschungen, Vol. 31 |year= 2021 |isbn= 978-3-7001-8648-9 |url= https://www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576%200x003c6683.pdf |access-date= 22 September 2021}}

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".Chitty (1928), p. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56295/page/n183 138]Abbot Daniel, p. [https://archive.org/details/itinrairesrusse00khitgoog/page/n48/mode/1up 35]

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.

The laura of Euthymius was essential in the advancement and organisation of the Sabaite (desert monastic) movement, and, as the only dyophysite monastery in the Judaean desert at the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451), was central to the development of Chalcedonian orthodoxy within Palestinian monasticism, in what was at first an almost completely anti-Chalcedonian, miaphysite Palestine.Levy-Rubin (2001), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=O4pj9YNdgJYC&pg=PA289 289]

After the abandonment of the monastery in the 13th century, during the Mamluk period, the structures were converted during the same century into a travellers' inn, known as Khan al-Ahmar, the "Red Khan", a caravanserai for Muslim pilgrims on the route between Jerusalem and Mecca via Nabi Musa. It should not be confused with nearby Khan al-Hatruri (aka Inn of the Good Samaritan), sometimes referred to as Khan al-Ahmar as well.

The Rev. Haskett Smith guided European groups in Palestine in the late nineteenth century and edited the 1892 Murray's Handbooks for Travellers to Syria and Palestine. He recorded a visit to Khan al-Ahmar with a tour group journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho in his 1906 travelogue Patrollers of Palestine:

The entrance was through a wide archway in the side nearest to the road, and this archway opened into a covered courtyard with two similar arches at the further end, and doors leading into chambers on either side. Beyond the covered court was a spacious open square, surrounded on three sides by the high walls of the khan, and on the fourth bounded by the chambers and the court. A man in native costume was at one corner of the covered court, making coffee over a charcoal brazier, and at the same time filling and preparing a narghileh. There were several of these narghileh pipes arranged on a shelf near the brazier. The man was the innkeeper, or, as he is known by the natives, the khanidjeh. A few muleteers and other wayfarers were squatting or lying on the floor of the court, and some horses and mules were tethered in the open square within.Smith (1906), p. [https://archive.org/stream/patrollersofpale00smituoft#page/290/mode/2up 290]

The site is east of Mishor Adumim, the industrial zone of Ma'ale Adumim, and is accessible to visit.{{cite web |title= Euthymius Monastery |website= BibleWalks.com |url= https://www.biblewalks.com/EuthemiusMonastery |access-date=10 April 2021}}

• Monastery of Martyrius, a ruined Byzantine monastery in nearby Ma'ale Adumim
• Mar Saba, the Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, a related Byzantine monastery (still working), also in the Judaean desert

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• {{cite book |author=Abbot Daniel |translator=B. de Khitrowo |chapter=Vie et pèlerinage de Daniel, hégoumène russe (1106-1107): Du couvent de Saint-Euthyme |trans-chapter= Life and pilgrimage of Daniel, Russian abbot (1106-1107): The Monastery of Saint Euthymius |page=35 |title=Itinéraires russes en Orient |trans-title=Russian Orient Travels |publisher= Imprimerie Jules-Guillaume Fick for the Société de l'Orient Latin |volume= I, i |year= 1889 |location= Geneva |language= fr |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/itinrairesrusse00khitgoog/page/n48/mode/1up |access-date=5 September 2020}}
• {{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1883|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp03conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=3}} (p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/207/mode/1up 207])
• {{cite journal |last= Chitty |first= D. J. |author-link=Derwas Chitty |title= Two Monasteries in the Wilderness of Judaea |journal= Quarterly Statement |volume= 60 |issue= 1 |publisher=Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) |location= London |pages= 134–152 (138) |date= July 1928 |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56295/page/n183 |access-date=5 September 2020}}
• {{cite journal |author1= Chitty, D. J. |author-link=Derwas Chitty |author2= Jones, A.H.M. |author-link2= A. H. M. Jones |title= The Church of St. Euthymius at Khan el-Ahmar, Near Jerusalem |journal= Quarterly Statement |volume= 60 |issue= 4 |publisher= PEF |pages= [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56295/page/n232/mode/1up 175]–[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56295/page/n236/mode/1up 179] |date= October 1928 |doi= 10.1179/peq.1928.60.4.175 }}
• {{cite journal |author= Chitty, D. J. |author-link=Derwas Chitty |title= The Monastery of St. Euthymius |journal= Quarterly Statement |volume= 64 |issue= 4 |publisher= PEF |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56300/page/n248/mode/1up 188]–[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56300/page/n263/mode/1up 203] |year= 1932 |doi= 10.1179/peq.1932.64.4.188}}
• {{cite journal |author= Hirschfeld, Y. |author-link= Yizhar Hirschfeld |title= Euthymius and his monastery in the Judean desert |journal=LA |volume= 43 |pages= 339–371 |url= http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/sbf/Books/LA43/43339YH.pdf |year= 1993|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170617213902/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/sbf/Books/LA43/43339YH.pdf |archive-date= 2017-06-17}}
• {{cite book |last= Murphy-O'Connor |first= J. |author-link=Jerome Murphy-O'Connor |title= The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |page= 335 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 2008 |isbn= 978-0-19-923666-4 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cSuErBFmykQC&pg=PA335 |access-date= 9 April 2021}}
• {{cite book |last= Patrich |first= Joseph |title= Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism: A Comparative Study in Eastern Monasticism, Fourth to Seventh Centuries |pages= 265–266 |publisher= Dumbarton Oaks |year= 1995 |isbn= 0-88402-221-8 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OrZe96Bo9wUC&pg=PA265 |access-date= 9 April 2021}}
• {{cite book |editor-last= Patrich |editor-first= Joseph |title= The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present |publisher=Peeters Publishers |series= Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta |volume= 98 |year= 2001 |isbn= 90-429-0976-5 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O4pj9YNdgJYC |access-date= 9 April 2021}}
• {{cite book |last= Hirschfeld |first= Yizhar |author-link= Yizhar Hirschfeld |title= The Physical Structure of the New Laura as an Expression of Controversy over the Monastic Lifestyle |page= 323-346 [342] |year= 2001}}
• {{cite book |last= Levy-Rubin |first= Milka |title= The Role of the Judaean Desert Monasteries in the Monothelite Controversy in Seventh-Century Palestine |page= 283-300 [289] |year= 2001}}
• {{cite book | last= Pringle |first= D.|author-link=Denys Pringle |title= The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: L-Z (excluding Tyre) |volume= II |year= 1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-0-521-39037-8|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC |pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y0tA0xLzwEC&pg=PA229 229]-238 |access-date=5 September 2020}}
• {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Haskett |title=Patrollers of Palestine |page= 290 |date=1906 |url= https://archive.org/stream/patrollersofpale00smituoft#page/290/mode/2up |access-date= 9 April 2021}}

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• [https://biblewalks.com/sites/EuthemiusMonastery.html Euthymius Monastery] at BibleWalks.com. Accessed April 2021.
• [https://www.google.com/maps/@31.7929892,35.3353193,3a,26.3y,152.46h,86.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sz5PtFOqsEIdE4gq5ectcyA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Monastery of St. Euthymius (4 Eitam St, Ma'ale Adumim)] at Google street view. Accessed April 2021.
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 18: at [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8380 IAA archives] (Israel Antiquities Authority) and Wikimedia commons

Category:Christian monasteries in the West Bank

Category:Archaeological sites in the West Bank

Category:Christian monasteries established in the 5th century

Category:Archaeological sites in Palestine

Euthymius