Bishop St. Spiridon of Trimithuosa
|
The necromancer turned east, with silent
prayer to the sacred disk of the Sun. Presently the breast of the
corpse began to heave, blood began to pour again through his veins,
breath returned to his nostrils. He sat up and spoke in a querulous
voice.
|
Apuleius of Madura
|
Spyridon, the bishop of
Trimithousa in Cyprus, came from a
family of peasants and passed his early life among the herds on the
common
grounds. In 325 AD. he was one of the bishops attending Nicea. Like
many of the
half-literate clerics of the period, he knew his Bible by heart and
this gave
him authority among a conclave of clerics with a less efficient memory,
but he
was not an insensible fanatic. At least on one occasion he shared food
with a
visiting stranger on a fast day, “because,” he said, quoting Paul’s
quote of Sappho, “to the
pure all things are pure.”
Back from Nicea, Spyridon
received bad news: his daughter
had died in her teens. Like most clerics of the period, Spyridon was
married
and a family man. His daughter’s name was Irene and for all we know,
she died
as a virgin.
In her father’s absence
she had accepted to take custody
over a deposit by a neighbor – a piece of jewelry – or so this neighbor
said to
Spyridon. The bishop searched everywhere in his house but couldn’t find
a
thing. Being an honest man, Spyridon went out to the sepulcher of his
daughter,
and turning east in silent prayer called upon God to show him before
its proper
season the promised resurrection. He was not to be disappointed. Like
Lazarus
on that other occasion, his daughter walked out of the tomb, told him
where she
had hidden the ornament – under a slab of the tiled walkway in
Spiridon’s
garden, and then – unlike Lazarus, who is still with us among the
living – she
returned to her grave (Sozomon, Hist. eccles. I:11; Socrates Scholaticus 1:12; Rufinus I:5).
© – 5/19/2009 – by
michael sympson, 350 words, all rights
reserved
