Venerable Christopher the Roman (6th c.) and Fantinus the Wonderworker (9th c.) — August 30 / September 12 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 30 according to the Julian Calendar (September 12 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Venerable Christopher the Roman and Fantinus the Wonderworker.

Venerable Christopher the Roman lived in the sixth century. He became a monk in Palestine, at the monastery of Venerable Theodosius (commemorated January 11). The accounts of Abba Theodulus concerning Venerable Christopher are included in the collection known as the “Spiritual Meadow”.

Once Venerable Christopher went to Jerusalem to venerate the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord and the Life-giving Cross. His attention was drawn to a monk standing at the gates of the church, before whose face two ravens were flying about. Christopher understood that these were demons who would not let the brother enter the church, and he asked him: “Why are you standing in the gateway and not going inside?” “Forgive me, father,” the monk answered, “two thoughts are contending within me. One says: go and venerate the precious Cross; the other says: do not go in, first finish your business, and you can venerate the Cross afterwards.” Then Christopher took the father by the hand and led him into the church. The ravens vanished at once, and the monk approached the holy things and venerated them. Venerable Christopher used to tell this story for the instruction of those who show no zeal in prayer and forget that one must first fulfil one’s spiritual service, and only then attend to necessary affairs.

By day Venerable Christopher performed the tasks of obedience in the monastery, and in the evening he went to the cave where Venerable Theodosius and the other fathers had once prayed. On every eighteenth step of the way down into the cave he made a hundred prostrations, and he spent the greater part of the night in prayer. He passed eleven years in such labours. Once in the cave the saint saw a great multitude of lamps, which two radiant youths were lighting. “Why have you set the lamps here in such a way that I cannot go in to pray?” asked Christopher. “These are the lamps of the fathers who serve God,” the youths answered. “Tell me, is my lamp lit or not?” “We shall light it,” was the reply. Then the blessed father thought to himself: “O Christopher, you must take up an even greater labour, so that your lamp may be lit!” He set out for the monastery of Mount Sinai, taking nothing with him, and there he spent fifty years in hard and unceasing struggle. At last the one well-pleasing to the Lord heard a voice: “Christopher! Return to your monastery, where you laboured before, that you may rest there together with your fathers.”

Venerable Fantinus the Wonderworker was born in Calabria. From the age of eight the saint was raised in a monastery. In his youth he lived as a hermit in the deserts and, left without clothing, often went twenty days without taking food. The venerable father spent sixty years in such struggles. Toward the end of his life the saint fled from the Saracens and went to the Peloponnese together with his disciples Vitalis and Nicephorus. Preaching the Gospel, he travelled through Corinth, Athos, Larissa and Thessalonica, where he venerated the relics of the holy Great Martyr Demetrius (commemorated October 26). The father well-pleasing to the Lord reposed in deep old age, at the end of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth century.