Parthenius of Lampsacus

Saint Parthenius was bishop of Lampsacus, a city on the Hellespont in Bithynia, in the fourth century, in the time of the emperor Constantine the Great. The Church honours him as a wonderworker and healer of the sick, and commemorates him on 7 February.

Early life

He was born at Miletopolis, in the region of the Hellespont in Asia Minor. His father was a deacon of the Church there and, depending on the source, was named Christodulus or Christopher. Parthenius worked as a fisherman, and what he earned he gave to those in need. He was a man of great faith, and although, according to the Greek tradition, he was unlettered, the Holy Spirit is said to have made him a wonderworker. In old age he learned to read Holy Scripture and so gained theological learning, growing at the same time in virtue.

The bishop of Miletopolis, named in the sources Philetus or Philip, ordained him a priest. A little later the bishop of Cyzicus, Ascholius or Achilles, ordained him bishop of Lampsacus.

Ministry and miracles

At Lampsacus, according to tradition, he cleansed the city of idolatry, closed the idol temples, built many churches and strengthened the true faith. The Bulgarians honour him especially for his struggle against Hellenic idolatry when Christians were few, and because many pagan shrines are said to have become churches.

By his prayer various sicknesses were healed, cancer above all, and evil spirits were driven out. It is told that he raised a man who had been unjustly killed, that he helped fishermen in their catch when a demon was hindering them, and that he healed a young man possessed, who did not know the spirit was in him. Once, when he wished to cast an unclean spirit out of a madman, the spirit begged not to be driven out. The saint said he would give it another man to dwell in, and the spirit asked who. Parthenius answered, "I am that man, enter and dwell in me." Hearing this, the spirit fled as if burned by fire, crying that it could not enter the house of God.

His life also ties him to Thrace: it is said that he cured Hypatius, archbishop of Heraclea in Thrace, of avarice, miserliness and injustice. He ordered the Church of Lampsacus as well as he could, and after foretelling things to come he departed peacefully to the Lord. The year of his death is not known. It is only known that straight after his passing all the bishops gathered to pay him the last honours, and he was laid to rest in the chapel of the church. The sources differ, some giving about 318 and others about 360.

Veneration

In 1235, at a council held at Lampsacus, most probably in his cathedral and before the shrine with his relics, the patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian Church was restored in the person of Archbishop Joachim I of Tarnovo. From then on the Bulgarian Church has borne the name of the Patriarchate of Tarnovo.

According to the Orthodox Synaxarion, the saint's head is at Esphigmenou Monastery on the Holy Mountain, and a part of it at the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos at Makrymalli in Euboea. A fragment of the relics is also at the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen at Ippodromio in Thessaloniki, and in three other monasteries, one of them in Cyprus. He is considered the protector of cancer patients. The Serbian Church keeps his feast on 7 February by the church calendar.