Leon of Methoni

Saint Leon of Methoni was born in Calabria in Italy and lived as an ascetic "in a single garment and barefoot, subduing the body with fasting and vigil".

During a pilgrimage journey to the Holy Places, weakened by his struggle, he died at sea just as he sighted Methoni, a port which from the fourth century was an obligatory stop for travellers to and from Jerusalem. The sailors buried his body on the beach at Methoni. Years later Leon appeared to the bishop of Methoni, Nicholas, a distinguished theologian of the twelfth century, who translated the relics, and these at once began to work miracles.

The veneration of the saint ceased around 1600. After more than four hundred years, the metropolitan of Messenia, Chrysostomos III, restored his commemoration on 12 May, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style). His veneration is local.