Saint Phanourios

Saint Phanourios (Greek: Άγιος Φανούριος), also known as St. Phanourios the Newly-Manifest (Greek: Άγιος Φανούριος ο Νεοφανής) is recognized as a saint by the Greek Orthodox Church.[1] He is commemorated on August 27.[2]

Saint Phanourios icon by Angelos Akotantos (second quarter of 15th century)

Saint Phanourios was awarded the Martyr's Crown in the Orthodox Christian faith.

He is also well known for finding people's lost belongings after fervent supplications.

Angelos Akotantos from Crete has painted a number of the Saint's icons many times depicting him killing a dragon; this tradition is found mainly in Crete especially in icons of the 15th century when the Saint is said to have saved many Cretans from certain death from the hands of the invading Ottomans.[3]

The chapel of Saint Phanourios near the village of Ayios Georgios on the north coast of the island of Cyprus is located near fossil bones of pygmy hippopotamuses. Locals believed them the bones of the saint and would powder them into a healing drink.[4] The Cypriot dwarf hippopotamus, Hippopotamus minor, was assigned the binomial name Phanourios minutus in 1972.[5]

References
  1. Gnisos - Orthodox Saints - The Holy and Glorious Great Martyr St. Phanourios the Newly-Manifest Whose memory we celebrate on 27 August. Translated by [Father] George Lardas from the Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (in Greek), 4th Ed. (Athens, 1974), Vol. VIII, pp. 470-474.
  2. Orthodox Church in America - St Phanourius
  3. Article from the newspaper "To Vema" (in Greek)
  4. Reese, David S. (1975). "Men, Saints or Dragons?". Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum. 17 (4). Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  5. Boekschoten G.J., Sondaar P.Y. 1972. On the fossil mammalia of Cyprus, I & II. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Series B), 75 (4): 306–38.
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