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Our Fathers among the Saints Epiphanios, bishop of Cyprus and Germanos, Archbishop of Constantinople
740
Saint Epiphanios was born a Jew in Palestine, but he and his sister came to faith in Christ and were baptized together. Epiphanios gave all his possessions to the poor and became a monk. He knew St Hilarion the great (October 31), and traveled among the monks of Egypt to learn their ways and wisdom. The fame of his virtue spread so widely that several attempts were made to make him bishop, first in Egypt, then in Cyprus. Whenever Epiphanios heard of these plans, he fled the area. He was finally made bishop by means of a storm: told to go to Cyprus, he took ship instead for Gaza, but a contrary wind blew his ship directly to Cyprus, where “Epiphanios fell into the hands of bishops who had come together to elect a successor to the newly-departed Bishop of Constantia, and the venerable Epiphanios was at last constrained to be consecrated, about the year 367.” (Great Horologion). He guarded his flock faithfully for the remainder of his life, working many miracles, defending the Church against the Arian heresy, and composing several books, of which the best-loved is the Panarion (from the Latin for ‘bread-box’), an exposition of the Faith and an examination of eighty heresies. He was sometimes called the ‘Five-tongued’ because he was fluent in Hebrew, Egyptian, Syriac, Greek, and Latin.
Saint Germanos was the son of a prominent family, in Constantinople. He became Metropolitan of Cyzicus, then was elevated to the throne at Constantinople in 715. It was he who baptized the infant Constantine, who for his whole life was nicknamed “Copronymos” because he defecated in the baptismal font (though he was neither the first nor the last infant to do so). At this incident, Patriarch Germanos is said to have prophesied that the child would one day bring some foul heresy upon the Church, which he did, becoming a notorious iconoclast as emperor. Germanos openly opposed the decree of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian which began the persecution of the holy icons. For this he was deposed and driven into exile in 730. He lived the rest of his life in peace. Saint Germanos is the composer of many of the Church’s hymns, notably those for the Feast of the Meeting in the Temple.
These two Saints are always commemorated together.
Holy martyr Pancras of Rome
Saint Pancras was born about the year 289 in the region of Synnada in Phrygia, of noble Roman parents. His mother Cyriada died in giving him birth, and his father followed her to the grave not long after. The orphan was entrusted to the care of his uncle Dionysius, with whom he came to Rome and lived in a villa on the Caelian Hill. There uncle and nephew were both converted to Christ and instructed in the faith by a presbyter named Marcellinus, and the boy received holy Baptism. When the persecution of Diocletian broke out around the year 303 and the edict was promulgated demanding sacrifice to the gods, the young Pancras was brought before the emperor and confessed Christ openly. Diocletian, struck by the courage and beauty of so young a boy, sought by promises of wealth and honour to turn him from the faith, but he answered, "I am a child only in body; in heart I am old in Christ." He was condemned to be beheaded on the Aurelian Way at the age of fourteen, about the year 304. His body was buried by the Christian matron Octavilla in the cemetery on the Via Aurelia, where afterwards Pope Symmachus built a basilica in his honour. The relics and the veneration of Saint Pancras spread widely, and Saint Gregory the Great gave them to Saint Augustine for the mission to England, so that he is honoured both in East and West.
Saint Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus
Saint Epiphanius was born about the year 310 in the village of Besanduk in Palestine, of Jewish parentage. Left an orphan, he was brought to the Christian faith after seeing the monk Lucian give away his own clothing to a poor man, and after his baptism he entered upon the monastic life in Egypt under the guidance of Saint Hilarion the Great. He gained mastery of Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek and Latin, and on his return to Palestine founded a monastery in the region of Eleutheropolis, where he was ordained presbyter and became the superior. So great was the fame of his sanctity, learning and zeal for orthodoxy that in 367 he was elected bishop of Constantia (Salamis) on the island of Cyprus, and metropolitan of all Cyprus, an office he held until his repose. He was renowned for his extraordinary almsgiving, simplicity of life and openness to all who sought him, and for his vigorous defence of the faith against the heresies of his day. His chief written work, the Panarion or Medicine Chest (374 to 377), gives an account of eighty heresies and their refutations, ending with a confession of orthodox doctrine; he also composed the Ancoratus and other treatises. In old age he was drawn into the controversy over Saint John Chrysostom by Theophilus of Alexandria, but realising that he had been deceived he set sail back to Cyprus, and reposed at sea on the way home in 403. On 12 May he was buried in a new church which he himself had built.
Saint Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople
Saint Germanus was born at Constantinople in the seventh century. His father, a senator, was put to death by order of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatos, and the young Germanus was forcibly made a eunuch and committed to the clergy of the Great Church, where he excelled in the study of the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the fathers. For the holiness of his life he was raised to the see of Cyzicus, and on 11 August 715 he was elected to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople. He presided at the council that condemned the Monothelite revival in 712. The chief trial of his episcopate came with the rise of iconoclasm under the Emperor Leo the Isaurian. The patriarch defended the holy icons by his preaching and writings, sending three letters on their veneration which were afterwards read at the Seventh Ecumenical Council. When Leo demanded that he sign the iconoclast decree of 730, Saint Germanus refused, declaring, "If I am a Jonas, cast me into the sea, but without an ecumenical council I cannot innovate in the faith." He laid down his omophorion at the holy altar and withdrew to the family estate of Platanion, where he spent the rest of his days in monastic stillness. He composed many liturgical hymns, including those for the feast of the Entry of the Theotokos. He reposed in peace about the year 740 at the age of about ninety-five and was buried in the monastery of Chora. His name was inscribed in the diptychs of the saints at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787.
Saint Theodore the wonderworker, bishop of Cyrene
Saint Theodore lived in the third century and was bishop of Cyrene in Libya. By his learning and his pen he laboured greatly in the service of the Church, and is said to have been a notable copyist of the divine books, transcribing many sacred texts with his own hand. During the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian the pagans of Cyrene seized him and demanded that he hand over the books which he had copied. When he refused they beat him cruelly, hung him up, scraped his sides with iron combs and broke his teeth with stones, but he gave glory to God amidst the torments. Through his prayers many were converted to Christ, including a number of women who were also martyred. At length, exhausted by his sufferings, he commended his spirit to the Lord and received the crown of martyrdom about the year 310. The Church reckons him among the wonderworkers because of the miracles wrought through his intercession.