 |
| St. Kindeos the Presbyter (Feast Day - July 11) |
Verses
Unworthy to bear being entirely burnt,
Kindeos was saved and he died in this way.
Kindeos was saved and he died in this way.
He was from a village called Talmenia Side in Pamphylia, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), and his forefathers were from Oumanada. Brought before the governor Stratonikos, he boldly confessed Christ. Whence his feet were nailed to iron shoes, and he was forced to run to the area known as the sacred door.*
There he encountered a man who was carrying a load of wood. Because the Greeks wanted to snatch the wood for the purpose of burning the Martyr, for this reason the Saint gave the man thirty pieces of copper for the price of the wood. When the Greeks wanted to load the wood on others to carry, the Saint would not allow it, instead he himself carried it on his shoulders.
When the fire was lit, the brave athlete entered into it, and from within he taught and persuaded the Greeks in the faith of Christ, without being harmed by the flames. When the wind picked up and it began to grow dark together with thunder and lightning, the Saint prayed, and immediately it grew calm and many stars could be seen, then he delivered his spirit into the hands of God.
The priest of the idols, having seen this miracle, believed in Christ. He then persuaded his wife to also believe, and she sent her servant to bury the relic of the Saint with myrrh and clean linens, then they both received Holy Baptism.
Another man from Oumanada, whose name was Orestes, a Deacon of the Church, took the relic of Saint Kindeos along with his all-honorable head and - O the miracle! - he was lifted up in the air like Habakkuk, and within one day he went from Pamphylia to his homeland in Oumanada. There he built an ark, and by the hands of Priests he had the holy relic treasured within, for this is the proper order and habit in the placement of holy relics.
Notes:
* In the Synaxaristes of Dionysiou Monastery, it says that this was Hieropolis.