Our Holy Father Theodore the Hermit, the Wonderworker.

Commemorated June 5 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

He purified his heart by long asceticism in the Jordan wilderness and received from God the gift of wonderworking. When he was at one time travelling by ship from Constantinople, his ship went off course and there was no drinking water left in her. When all the travellers were close to death from thirst, Theodore raised his arms to heaven, prayed to God and made the sign of the Cross over the sea. He then told the sailors to draw water from the sea and drink it; and, when they did so, they found the water fresh. They all began to pay homage to Theodore, but he begged them to thank, not him, but the Lord God, who had performed that wonder out of His love for mankind. He died peacefully in 583.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK