Panegyrios the Wonderworker

Saint Panegyrios the Wonderworker is a local saint of Cyprus, venerated in the village of Malounta near Nicosia.

His life has not been committed to writing, and he has no synaxarion. What is known comes from his service and from the description of his icon. It seems that he came from Malounta and struggled in a hermitage near the village from his youth. He was probably a hieromonk, made a monk and then a priest in a nearby monastery. In the icon he appears vested in a phelonion as a priest, blessing with his right hand and holding a cross in his left. The icon, large, of a size for an iconostasis position, was painted in 1708 and renewed in 1841, and today is in the new church of the Mother of God Chrysopantanassa in the village.

The time in which he lived is unknown, but the service shows that he lived when parts of Cyprus passed from time to time under Arab rule. For this reason he taught the Christians the way of Christ and kept them from converting to Islam, calling that faith a deception. Living in struggle and keeping in mind the glory of the future life, he came to inward compunction and a spotless life, and God made him worthy to work miracles: he drove away the locusts that devastated the fields and healed the sick of various diseases. He fell asleep in peace. The village tradition preserves, to the south-⁠east of the village, traces of ruins which the villagers took to be those of his hermitage.

He is commemorated on 15 May, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style). His veneration is local.