Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Trimythous
Bishop of Trimythous in Cyprus, Father of the First Council
- Feast day
- December 12
- Lived
- c. 270–348
- Patronage
- Corfu, shepherds, potters, those in financial distress
A shepherd who became a bishop without ever ceasing to be a shepherd, Saint Spyridon confounded the philosophers at Nicaea and remains, in his shrine on Corfu, one of the most visibly active saints in Orthodoxy.
Life
Spyridon kept sheep in Cyprus, married, and had a daughter, Irene. Widowed, he was made bishop of Trimythous and continued to work with his flocks, wearing the plain woven shepherd's cap that appears in every icon of him.
At the First Ecumenical Council in 325 he answered a philosopher who was arguing against the Trinity not with syllogisms but by taking up a clay tile: fire flashed upward, water ran down, and clay remained in his hand — one thing in three. The philosopher was baptised.
Corfu and the relics
His body, incorrupt and still flexible, was brought to Corfu in 1456 after the fall of Constantinople. Four times a year it is carried in procession through the town in thanksgiving for deliverances from plague, famine and the Ottoman siege of 1716. The slippers on his relics are said to wear out and are replaced periodically.
When Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker is commemorated
The feast falls on December 12 on the Revised Julian (New) calendar used by most Greek, Antiochian and Romanian parishes. Parishes that keep the Julian (Old) calendar — much of the Russian, Serbian and Georgian Churches, and Mount Athos — celebrate it on the civil date December 25, thirteen days later. You can switch between both reckonings anywhere on this site.
See the full liturgical day for December 12, 2026
That page gives the fasting rule in force, the Epistle and Gospel appointed for the day, and every other saint commemorated alongside Saint Spyridon the Wonderworker. To keep the feast, look for a parish in the USA, Canada or Australia directory, and read the Akathist hymns appointed for private prayer.
Other saints commemorated in December
- BarbaraDecember 4
- Herman of AlaskaDecember 13
- John of KronstadtDecember 20
- Lucia of SyracuseDecember 13
- Nicholas of MyraDecember 6
- Porphyrios the KafsokalyviteDecember 2