Orestes

Saint Orestes is commemorated in Cyprus together with Saint Reginos on 20 August. Both are unknown to the synaxarists, but they are honoured in Cyprus, where they suffered at the hands of pagans. They are said to have come from Chalcedon (perhaps Carthage), where they were seized by the governor and imprisoned for being Christians; freed, they fled to Cyprus, where they were killed as martyrs near Limassol, at Fasoula. This information comes from their service, published in Limassol in 1902.

According to a fuller account, Orestes was among those who saw Reginos, thrown into the sea in a sack, brought ashore by two dolphins. Orestes, like others, then believed in Christ, was arrested and imprisoned, and an angel opened the prison doors for them. Having fled to Cyprus with Reginos, he chose to be a missionary, proclaimed the faith at Neapolis of Limassol and then at Fasoula, where they are said to have been seized, tortured and beheaded. It is not certain that Orestes was killed at the same time as Reginos, though tradition names him with him.

The saints are honoured at Fasoula and in the villages of Apliki and Tremithousa. A part of the relics of Orestes is kept in the Panagia Fasoula church. He is commemorated on 20 August, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).