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| St. Thomas Dephourkinos (Feast Day - December 10) |
Verses
Thomas established himself on the unbreakable base of God,
Showing himself mightier than the instruments of the demons.
Showing himself mightier than the instruments of the demons.
Saint Thomas Dephourkinos was born at the foot of Mount Kyminas in Bithynia in the ninth century to middle class parents. From his youth he studied ecclesiastical writings and longed for the monastic life after visiting many monastic centers. Finally he entered one of the area monasteries and became a monk. Later in his life, when the Roman official Galolektos had founded a monastery at the Sangarios River, Saint Thomas was already an experienced monk, and the brethren chose him as head of the new monastery. He governed the monastery in an orderly way and was an example to his fellow monks.
From there Saint Thomas withdrew into the wilderness, where for a long time he labored in solitude. The monk overcame many snares of the devil in the wilderness. For years he was sorely afflicted by demonic attacks in the form of mosquitoes, flies, wasps and snakes, from which he was finally delivered after prayer to God. The Lord in turn glorified him with the gift of healing and clairvoyance.
Once, the emperor Leo the Wise (886-911) came to the monastery to Saint Thomas for advice. Not finding the monk at the monastery, the emperor sent his messenger with a letter for him. And just as the messenger arrived at the the Elder’s hut, the Saint carried out to him a sealed answer, resolving the emperor’s question.
The Venerable Thomas reposed in deep old age, having reached the pinnacle of the spiritual life. The allusion to Emperor Leo is the only chronological indication in his late synaxarion notice, found in a fifteenth century manuscript.