March 2, 2019

Synaxarion of the Holy Confessor Kointos the Wonderworker

St. Kointos the Martyr (Feast Day - March 2 and July 2)

Verses

For March 2 
(where he is called a Confessor).

You carry the name of deeds,
Wondrous ones O all-blessed Kointos.

For July 2 
(where he is called a Martyr).

With broken legs Kointos was made strong again,
Still he was crowned and met a common death.

This Saint was born in Phrygia, where he was also taught piety, during the reign of Emperor Aurelian in the year 272. Having gone to a village called Aeolia, he distributed alms to the poor and healed those suffering from unclean spirits. The governor Rufus arrested the Saint, and ordered him to sacrifice to the idols, but this caused him to become demon possessed. Therefore the Saint supplicated God, and liberated the governor from the demon. For this reason not only was he set free, but he also received gifts from the governor as a payment for the grace.

On his way to Pergamon, he was captured by certain Greeks called Kymaians, who began to torture him. Because an earthquake took place through the prayers of the Saint, and by the earthquake the temple was destroyed and the idols fell, the Greeks set the Saint free.

Forty days after the earthquake, the governor Clearchus arrested the Saint in Pergamon, in as much as he feared the gods and was a zealot for the religion of idols. He therefore ordered that the legs of the Saint be broken, but they were immediately made well and healed by the power of Christ. After this the Saint traveled to various lands over the period of ten whole years, healing every prolonged illness and sickness, and showing mercy to the poor. And having thus conducted himself with his miracles and his God-pleasing works, he departed to the Lord.