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| St. Pansophios the Martyr (Feast Day - January 15) |
Verses
The deluded by thoroughly smiting Pansophios,
They fashioned for him a full crown.
They fashioned for him a full crown.
This Saint was from Alexandria during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251). His father's name was Nilus and he was a proconsul. Because of his great wealth and sharp nature, as well as his father's love for the beautiful, he arrived at the pinnacle of learning and education, both in the external knowledge of the Greeks and the internal knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
After his father died, he distributed his wealth to help the poor. Then he went into the desert, seeking to find the Lord by turning away from earthly things. While spending twenty-seven entire years in the desert, he occupied himself alone with God in silence and prayer. And having raised his mind to the heavens, he was slandered to the augustulus, namely the little augustus of Alexandria and governor, who undertook from the emperor Decius the war against the Christians. (For it was not possible to hide the great virtue of the Saint.)
The Saint therefore stood before him, and rebuked the Greek delusion by using their own myths, and shaming the sensibility of the tyrant, he was harshly beaten. By this the renowned one received the unfading crown of martyrdom.