By Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mani
From a shepherd of sheep, to a God-appointed Shepherd of the rational flock of the Church of Christ. Saint Spyridon served as Bishop of Trimythous in the 4th century and became the boast of Cyprus, which gave him birth, and the adornment of Kerkyra, which guards his whole and incorrupt sacred relic.
He lived in Cyprus during the time of Saint Constantine the Great and was raised “in the education and admonition of the Lord,” especially by his faithful grandmother Loida and his most devout mother Eunice. Humble, simple, ascetic, full of goodness, a servant of all — he was a man of the countryside, where he studied the Holy Gospel, and there, in the mountains with his sheep, he chanted hymns and glorified God.
When the years passed, clergy and laity called him and persuaded him to become a clergyman, and later this humble and gentle man ascended from priest of the Most High to the episcopal throne of the Diocese of Trimythous.
What Saint Spyridon became is revealed through his entire episcopal life. It is worth approaching three points that are especially instructive for us today.
1. Champion of Orthodox Christian Teaching
As the first line of his Apolytikion states, he was shown to be “the champion of the First Synod.” At that time, as is well known, the Church was shaken by the terrible heresy of Arius. When the whole Christological issue was brought before the Synod (convened in 325 AD in Nicaea of Bithynia), Saint Spyridon, acting with great simplicity and humility, wishing to prove that God is Triune - that the Son is “of one essence with the Father,” and that He “was begotten of the Father before all ages,” therefore not a creature as Arius claimed - took a clay tile in his hands. Making the sign of the cross he said:
“In the name of the Father” — and a flame came forth from the tile.
“And of the Son” — and water dripped from it.
“And of the Holy Spirit” — and what remained in his hand was the clay.
Before the astonished eyes of all he explained in simple words: “The earth, the water, and the fire — three material elements made the one tile. The same is true of the Holy Trinity. He is one God, yet consists of three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one essence with one another. Therefore the Son is not a creature of the Father.”
The First Ecumenical Synod, with the contribution of Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker — the simple yet virtuous shepherd of Christ and His Church — established the consubstantiality of Christ with God the Father and anathematized Arius and all who supported his heretical teachings.
2. Protector of the Poor and Comforter of the Afflicted
His biographer, Symeon Metaphrastes, writes strikingly:
“He took care to tend to tired travelers, to wash their feet worn from the road for their relief, and to set a table for them so that they might eat and be strengthened. He performed other services, every one of them according to the command of love and with a humble spirit.”
He also writes that toward all his fellow human beings Spyridon was beneficent, philanthropic, merciful, and a compassionate supporter:
“He bestowed health; he healed bodies that had been stricken with illness; he healed great bodily afflictions of people. He rebuked evil spirits and reproached them, and according to the measure of his rebuke they fled from those they had possessed, who were immediately freed from them. And many other miracles were accomplished — greater even than these — by the power of God, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which collaborated with him, Saint Spyridon.”
The historian Sozomen, in the 5th century, writes in his Ecclesiastical History:
“Saint Spyridon had the habit of distributing his income: some he gave to the poor, others he lent as dowries to those who wished and needed them. And neither when he gave nor when they returned them did he engage in transactions with his own hands. Only after showing them the treasury did he permit those who came to take as much as they wished according to their own judgment, and again to return what they had taken.”
All these things are wondrous.
3. Bestowed Abundant Divine Grace and the Gift of Working Miracles
Saint Spyridon was given by God the gift of performing miracles. Thus, during a time of drought, through his prayer he brought the much-desired rain. On another occasion he transformed a serpent into gold to help the poor, and later restored the gold again into a serpent. He raised the dead daughter of a pious woman, healed Emperor Constantius from a grave illness, restored the speech of a deacon who had lost his voice, and performed many other signs to bring sinners to their senses.
As one hymn says, he was revealed as the “worker of the greatest virtues and miracles.” And the miracles were not limited to his life in this world; they continued — and continue — after his blessed repose. Indeed, the litanies performed especially on the island of Kerkyra are vivid evidence and remembrance of his miracles, such as the deliverance of the island from plague, from earthquakes, and more.
4. The Heavenly Altar
Rarely in the Apolytikion of a Saint do we find the astonishing phrase:
"And when chanting your holy prayers, you had Angels concelebrating with you, O most sacred one.”
Let us truly reflect on this wondrous scene:
Before the Holy Table, serving the Mysteries of God, stands Saint Spyridon, and around him are holy angels — a multitude of heavenly hosts “flying one toward another” — co-chanting and assisting the holy Hierarch in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy! What grace, what blessing, what glory! This is the miracle of miracles. This is what "the heavens were opened" means. This shows the relationship between heaven, the heavenly world, and earth. Indeed, angels held the censer, angels the aer, angels the candle, angels the Holy Gifts, and angels responded “And with your spirit” when the Saint proclaimed, “Peace be to all.”
And how could it be otherwise, when Saint Spyridon himself was an “earthly angel” in his life and wholly dedicated to God?
Simple and great was Saint Spyridon — wonderworking and beloved by the people, the great glory of the God-bearing holy Fathers.
It is characteristic that many encomiastic homilies were written for the wonderworking saint; among their authors are Makarios Kofos, Dionysios Kontaris, Bessarion Kephalas, Alexandros Trivolis, and Nikephoros Theotokis — each a learned clergyman.
Cyprus and Kerkyra especially bless the holy Hierarch, and the entire Orthodox Church entreats:
“Rejoice, O model of hierarchs, unshakable support of the Church, glory of the Orthodox, source of miracles, unfailing stream of healings; radiant luminary, instrument of the Spirit, divine mind, gentle and pure, beautified by simplicity and truth. Heavenly man, earthly angel, laborer in the vineyard, true friend of Christ, entreat Him to grant to those who honor you His great mercy.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.