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Saint
Porphyrios
Saint Porphyrios, Wonderworker of Kavsokaliva
New Calendar December 2 Old Calendar December 15
Why they are a saint
The Holy Elder Porphyrios (in the world Evangelos Baϊraktaris) was born on February 7, 1906 at Euboia,1 in the village of Agios Ioannis in the province of Karystia. The Orthodox Church commemorates Porphyrios on December 2.
Life
Saint Porphyrios, in the world Evangelos Bairaktaris, was born on February 7, 1906, in the village of Agios Ioannis in Euboea, to devout parents. At twelve he left secretly for the Holy Mountain, wishing to imitate Saint John the Hut-dweller, and lived in obedience to two elders at the hermitage of Saint George at Kavsokalyvia. He was tonsured a monk at fourteen with the name Nikitas, and God soon granted him the gift of clairvoyance.
On the eve of Greece's entry into the Second World War in 1940 he was sent to Athens, where he served as priest and spiritual father at the Athens Polyclinic for thirty-three years, devoting himself to relieving the pain of the sick. In 1979 he settled at Milesi to build a monastery; though very sick and blind, he worked tirelessly, and the cornerstone of the church of the Monastery of the Transfiguration was laid in 1990.
In June 1991, sensing his death and not wishing to be buried with honours, he went back to the hut of Saint George at Kavsokalyvia, where he had been tonsured seventy years before. He gave his soul to the Lord early on December 2, 1991, with the words of Christ's prayer, 'that they all may be one.' The Ecumenical Patriarchate glorified him on November 27, 2013.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Orthodox Christians usually take Porphyrios as a patron when they bear the name Porphyrios at baptism, or were born or baptized near the feast on December 2.
Prayer
O holy Porphyrios, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.