It is celebrated on March 16 every year.
Saint Christodoulos was born in a town near Nicaea in Bithynia around 1020 AD. His secular name was John. From a very young age he wished to leave the world and dedicate himself to the solitary life. He started from a Monastery on Olympus in Bithynia, where after a while he became a Monk.
From there he will go to the Holy Land and for a short time he will be alone in some lonely place there. However, the raids of the Saracens forced the Monks to leave those places and so he returned to Asia Minor and settled on Mount Latros of Mysia. There he excelled in all the virtues and the Monks elected him as their first supervisor with the office of Archimandrite, a fact that also gave him the nickname of Latrinos. However, the raids of the Muslims forced him to flee from Latros as well.
Looking for a place of practice, Osios arrives at Strovilos, a sea area on the coast of Asia Minor. He will stay there for a short time, because a new raid will force him to flee to Leros and then to Kos, where he will found Monydria. However, the differences with the local residents will make him uneasy this time as well.
After wandering around the surrounding islands, he arrives at Patmos, where he is fascinated by its peace and quiet. He immediately leaves for Constantinople and asks Emperor Alexios I Comnenus for permission “to make this state a school of souls”. The Emperor with Chrysoboulos grants him Patmos and the surrounding islands along with laborers and money. With his establishment in Patmos, the Saint begins the construction of a Monastery named after the Theologian. But the raids of the Muslims will not leave him alone this time either.
Osios leaves Patmos and flees to Evia in the year 1092 AD.
Osios Christodoulou’s stay in Evia was, according to scientific research, of short duration. There is information that a pious and wealthy inhabitant of Euripus offered his luxurious house to Osios, who elevated it to a monastery, although Osios’ cares, due to the great property of the monastery on Patmos, required his stay not in the desert but close to the world. Besides, there has always been a tradition in Evia, according to which Saint Christodoulos remained as an ascetic in the cave at the western end of the town of Limni (Elymnion).
Osios during his stay in Euripos drew up his “Testament” and “Codicillo” (March 1093). In order for this Testament to be valid, it is signed by seven officials of the episcopal authority and the city of Euripus (Chalkidos), namely Leo the elder and sacellar of the city of Euripus, John the elder and notary of the see of Euripus, Michael… of the see of Euripus, Vasilios the lowly deacon… and notary of Euripou et al.
In particular, the Metropolitan of Rhodes Ioannis, in his work “Life and State of the Holy Father Christodoulou” chronicles the stay and sleep of the Holy Christodoulou in Euripos, which happened in the year 1093 AD, as well as the retrieval of his holy relics and his transfer to Patmos, writing the following:
“And Osios arrived there with the brotherhood, where the water of the sea flows outwards and receding again creates a strait of the sea, which the ancients called the Strait of Euripus. And there, therefore, after he became the object of the admiration of all and after he deserved the due honor, as if he were an Angel in a mortal body, he instructed his flock, so that they would not be inconvenienced by the frequent movements, nor foolishly resist the will of God, who provides all in wisdom. But one of the monks, because he could not endure the hardships, nor the tortuous and painful virtue, like Judas of the twelve departed from the community of the brothers and replaced that spiritual gathering with a garden, which he rented. And, as the devil entered Judas and incited him to treason, in the same way and cunning demon tormented the monk who had been separated from the brotherhood, and the illness of the small-minded brother is announced to the father.
He, meek and helpless, giving way to anger, after receiving the holy Gospel, comes in the evening to the raging and madman, reads the words of the Holy Spirit about the patient and immediately the position of the sick person improves, who no longer wished to deal with the planting of trees and the watering of gardens, but he prefers to cultivate the land of virtue, thus returning again to the flock, from which he had been badly cut off before. After the lapse of a short time, he prophesied to those who followed him that he would emigrate to the Lord, that the Agarites would not dwell in the islands until the end, and that his close friend would not be indifferent to them, but that as soon as the stormy seas ceased, he would return again to the spiritual fold.
So he asks them to take the new with them