August 27: Commemoration of Saint Phanourios the Martyr

August 27: Commemoration of Saint Phanourios the Martyr​
Saint Phanourios is little known. An ancient and great Martyr. His icon appeared—was revealed, to be precise—during the years of Turkish rule, or our beautiful island of Rhodes. In those times, he appeared in order to strengthen the Christians, so they could make their great resistance. His holy image was revealed there, a church was built in his honor, and miracles began to occur.

At that time, three deacons had traveled from Crete—then under Venetian control—to Kythera in order to be ordained by the bishop there, since the Venetians had deposed the Orthodox bishop of Crete and installed a Roman Catholic one. But the Cretans resisted. So, the deacons were ordained as priests and were returning when they were captured by Saracen Muslim pirates, who brought them to Rhodes and sold them. It was there that Saint Phanourios intervened with their masters and, in a wondrous way, set them free.

The priests returned to Crete, bringing with them his icon, and from that time onward the Cretans—and indeed all Greeks and all friends of Saint Phanourios—have loved this great Saint exceedingly, a Saint once unknown yet now well beloved. Some say that he is the same as Saint Theodore the Recruit, but such questions are for the hagiographers and scholars. For us, it is enough to marvel at Saint Phanourios, to invoke him, and above all to pray that he reveals to us in our lives not only the things we have lost and need, but above all the will of God…

​Archimandrite Ananias Koustenis,
Summer Synaxarion, Volume II