Our righteous Father Euphrosynos was born of peasant parents and consequently was reared without schooling. Later he entered a certain monastery, was robed with the holy Schema of a monk, and served the fathers. But since he was of coarse country upbringing, he remained in the difficult obedience of serving in the kitchen, being scorned and mocked by some of the monks who had forgotten the purpose for which they left the world. Yet the blessed one endured this contempt with a most courageous heart, wisdom, and tranquility of mind, not being troubled in the least by these things. Thus he seemed illiterate according to his manner of speech, yet he was not such in the true knowledge which he possessed, as we shall see from the following.

There was in that monastery — at the same time as the ever-memorable Euphrosynos — a certain pious priest who made fervent entreaty that it might be revealed to him the good things which they that love God shall enjoy. One night, therefore, while the priest was asleep, it seemed as though he were in a certain garden. With amazement and ecstasy he beheld most delightful things. He also saw Euphrosynos the cook of the monastery, who stood in the midst of the garden and partook of the diverse good things of that place. Having come nearer, he inquired of the blessed one to whom this garden belonged, and how he had come to be there.

Father Euphrosynos replied, "This garden is the abode of God's elect, and by the great goodness of my God I have my dwelling here."

Then the priest asked, "But what dost thou do in this garden?"

He answered, "I have dominion over all the things which thou dost see here, and I rejoice and am filled with gladness at the vision and noetic enjoyment of them."

Again the priest said, "Canst thou give me something of these good things?"

"Yea, by the grace of God, take from whatever thou dost wish."

Then the priest pointed to some apples and asked Father Euphrosynos if he might have of these. Taking a portion of the apples, the Saint put them in the priest's outer garment and said "Receive that which thou hast requested and take delight therein." [MORE]

 
     

About the cafe
The Saint Euphrosynos Café started out as the ROCOR Café back in 2001. The concept, brainstormed by a catechumen named Nicholas and a tonsured Reader going by the name Cyril, was a safe place where members of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA/ROCOR) could be safe from the attacks of "World Orthodoxy" so prominent on other Orthodox Christian web sites. It was also created to be a place where all Orthodox Traditionalists could safely discuss true Orthodoxy without being vilified, while presenting a directory of traditional Orthodox links in its portal in addition to books of the month for adults and children, etc. Cyril took care of moderation and content approval duties while Nicholas for the most part ran administrative and technical duties. Later, Cyril stepped down as part of removing himself from the Internet world and having concluded that now-Baptized, Nicholas could capably run the cafe on his own.

Initially, after the saddening schism of 2 synods claiming the name of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA/ROCOR) in 2002, the site maintained a mostly ROCOR-L presence, but in time it gained a noticable Greek presence from members of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece (GOC) and Matthewite Church of True Orthodox Christians (MTOX), thus expanding the forum's flavor with a dash of Hellenism. New posters from the Free Russian Orthodox Church (FROC) or Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC) and Metropolitan Vitaly's ROCOR-V (a.k.a. Russian Orthodox Church in Exile or ROCiE) also joined. We have even been blessed by having priests contribute from both the ROCORs, the ROAC, the GOC, and the Matthewites. A number of "World Orthodox" clergy and laity have also joined to better learn more about the genuine traditions of the one Holy Catholic & Apostolic Orthodox Church that their churches no longer embrace.

In early 2003, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (Laurus Synod) quietly decided in a synodal meeting that they would not permit the Café to use the ROCOR name any longer, so they — without any warning to the Café administrators — shut down our store by means of an anonymous legal threat to Cafe Press, our online store provider. Thus, after his rebuilding the store and getting it shut down yet again, Nicholas investigated and finally learned who had made the legal threats. He initiated communication with the ROCOR-L synod to see why they had chosen this course of action in lieu of contacting him. The synod claimed they had to do this to protect the ROCOR name and that this was to show a pattern of protecting their copyright when they in the future would sue the ROCOR-V for using the ROCOR name. Within days, all members voted on a new name for the web site and the winner was one submitted by another Nicholas, a Cyprianite Reader. The new name was The Euphrosynos Café, named after Saint Euphrosynos the Cook.

These events, as well as ROCOR-L's admiting to actively seeking union with the Sergianist Moscow Patriarchate (MP) in late 2003, (which led many forum members to leave the ROCOR-L) helped further steer the forum away from being as ROCOR-focused and truly focused on international, pan-jurisdictional, Orthodox Traditionalism.

Eventually, a popular poster, Ioannis, an English and Greek-speaking member of the newly autonomous Genuine Greek Orthodox Church of America (GOCA, also known as HOTCA: the Hellenic Orthodox Traditionalist Church of America), joined the Café's ever changing moderating team, and eventually became the co-administrator and main developer. Together, in 2004 and 2005, the recently ordained Father Nicholas and Ioannis rebuilt the entire site from the ground up, upgrading and increasing its many features.

During 2007, many major changes came to the site. First, due to some polemical issues in the ROAC of America, Ioannis became the legal owner of the site. Then, two moderators, Father Siluan, a Russian and Spanish-speaking priest of the Latin American mission of the ROAC; and Father Mark, a Matthewite priest from Canada; were elevated to become full administrators of the site. Next Juvenaly, a popular poster created a TOC map application for the Cafe. Finally, Father Nicholas retired from the diaconate. Today, in 2008, Father Mark is the main contact for the site and is in charge of most of the day-to-day responsibilities of running the Cafe's forum.

We try to be a lightly-moderated place where personal attacks are non-existent and where we can learn from one another in a true, loving, traditional Orthodox Catholic Christian experience. Welcome to The Saint Euphrosynos Café and may it allow us all to help one another to become better true-confessing Orthodox Christians.
     
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