Panaret of Paphos

Saint Panaret of Paphos, a hierarch and bishop of Paphos, shepherded the Church in Cyprus under Turkish rule in the second half of the eighteenth century and is especially venerated in Paphos. His Greek name means virtuous in every way, and his life, says his hagiography, had a name by its deeds and deeds in keeping with its name.

He was born in the early eighteenth century in a village near Ammochostos (Famagusta) and became a monk in the monastery of Saint Anastasius there. He attended the school of Greek grammar and music founded by Archbishop Philotheus of Cyprus, with whom he later remained friends. In 1764 he became abbot of the monastery of Panagia Palloriotissa, and in 1767 bishop of Paphos, serving there until his death in 1790.

His time was hard: after the Turks had for a while allowed the Church of Cyprus the rights taken from it by the Latins, they began to oppress the Greeks again, with the injustices of governors and enormous taxes, and some turned to Islam. Panaret bore the burden of his flock as a gentle father and strengthened its fidelity to the Orthodox faith. In 1783-1784 he went to Constantinople with other metropolitans and obtained the removal from Cyprus of Hadjibakki, who burdened the Cypriots with levies. He attended to the needs of everyone who asked his help and cared for the education of the people, at a time when there were no schools on the island; he supported the printing of the philosopher Theophilus Corydalleus's book on birth and death in Aristotle (1780) and of Archimandrite Kyprianos's History of the Island of Cyprus (1788).

At a time when many Greeks were turning Muslim and Orthodox churches were being turned into mosques, Panaret urged the people to rebuild their churches, and the restoration of many churches of Paphos and some monasteries is owed to him. In his time many icons were painted, some of which survive. At his own expense he built the church of Saint Anastasius in Ammochostos and adorned the reliquary with the head of the holy Apostle Philip, now in the Monastery of the Honourable Cross at Omodos; on the apostle's icon he himself is shown holding out to the apostle a silver casket with the saint's head.

He joined pastoral care with a severe ascetic life: he practised self-⁠restraint, preferred prayer to sleep, confessed with humility and served with reverence, and on his body he wore chains of bronze and iron. Even in life he had the gift of working miracles. A priest once appropriated church money and denied it, and Panaret told him to be silent; the priest lost his speech. Later, gravely ill, he sent for the saint, and as the bishop drew near his voice returned, he confessed, received forgiveness and died in peace.

He foretold his own death and prepared a coffin for himself on the spot where the altar of the cathedral of Saint Theodore in Paphos now stands. Sensing that Parthenius, Bishop of Karpathos, would come to Paphos, he sent for him; he confessed to him, received communion and fell asleep. At his burial many healings took place.

Because of his virtuous life and miracles he was venerated as a saint almost at once after his death, and official canonization came at the end of the eighteenth century, under Patriarch Gerasimus III of Constantinople (1794-1797), a Cypriot. The saint's chains are kept in the Stavrovouni Monastery, and on the Greek island of Salamis an ancient fresco in a church shows him. Later in Cyprus many icons of him were painted. He is venerated above all in Paphos, where his feast is kept on 14 May, in the new style. He is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.