On the twelfth of this month [December], we commemorate our Venerable and God-bearing Father Spyridon the Wonderworker.
Verses
Although the wonderworker Spyridon is deceased,
His wonders have still not ceased.
On the twelfth Spyridon departed this life.
This Saint flourished during the years of the reigns of the emperors Constantine the Great (306-337) and Constantius (337-361) his son. According to intelligence he was a simple man, and according to his heart he was humble. Thus from his youth he was a shepherd of sheep. Then he received a wife into lawful marriage. After the death of his spouse he became a Bishop. This Saint was given such grace to work miracles and healings, through his simplicity and purity, that due to his numerous miracles that he worked, he received the nickname Wonderworker. For in a time of drought he brought down rain through his prayers. And because this rain became too much, he prevented it from excessively falling. When the sellers of wheat contemplated making people go hungry, the Saint vanquished their plans. For through his prayers the granaries that stored the wheat fell. He changed a snake into gold, and after this gold ceased the misfortune of a poor man, the gold became a snake once again. He also calmed the current of a river. To a prostitute who dared to approach him he revealed her sins, and by this he persuaded her to repent and confess. He was present at Nicaea during the First Ecumenical Synod which gathered together in the year 325, and by the power of the Holy Spirit he silenced the heretical Arians, who took pride in their external wisdom and eloquence. He raised his daughter from the dead, in order for her to reveal where she hid a valuable vessel that belonged to a woman. He liberated Emperor Constantius from a calamity he suffered from. He raised from the dead a child of a certain woman, after which she died from her sudden joy upon receiving her resurrected son back. When the fire from the lamp extinguished due to lack of oil, he made it gush forth with oil. He healed the Deacon who had no voice, by which the Saint had previously punished him. For he was ordered to say a prayer abbreviated due to the extreme heat, but out of his pride he prolonged it.
