A saint's day
St Phanourios the Great Martyr
Nothing certain is known of St Phanourios's life. When the walls of Rhodes were being repaired, workers uncovered a ruined church, and among the broken icons lay one of a young soldier-martyr, bright as if newly painted; Bishop Nilus read the name “Saint Phanourios,” and twelve scenes around the icon showed his tortures and his victory. He is shown holding a cross topped with a burning candle, for his name recalls the Greek word for “reveal,” and he reveals what is hidden.
The dates
- Kept on
- 27 August (9 September on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
Orthodox Christians, above all Greeks, pray to him when something is lost, from keys and documents to animals, and unmarried women ask him to reveal a good husband.
Greek families promise a Phanouropita, a simple spiced cake, and bake it when the lost thing turns up, sharing it with their neighbors. It is a folk custom, not a church rite, and many add a prayer for the saint's mother.
Cretan shepherds prayed to him for lost goats and stolen animals, and from Crete his fame spread across Greece; he is little known in Russian practice, where calendars list him as Fanury of Rhodes.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: