StThomas, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Commemorated March 21 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

He lived in the reigns of the Emperors Maurice and Phocas, and in the time of the Patriarchs John the Faster and Cyriac. Singled-out by St John for his great devotion and zeal, he was made patriarchal vicar by that saint, and after the death of Cyriac, was chosen as Patriarch. In his time an unusual event occurred: once when there was a procession with crosses carried, they began to sway and to hit against each other. The people marvelled at this; and when the Patriarch heard it attested, he asked Theodore the Sykeote, a famous ascetic and seer, to explain what it forebode. Theodore prayed to God and revealed to the Patriarch that it indicated a great misfortune that would come on the Church and on the Greek state through internal religious and political discord. Christians would fight and would exterminate each other. And all this came quickly to pass. Thomas begged Theodore to pray to God for him, that God would take him before this happened. 'Do you command me to come to you, or shall we meet in the other world before God?' So wrote Theodore to the Patriarch Indication by this that both he and the Patriarch would die soon. And that same day the Patriarch fell ill and died, and St Theodore died very soon after. St Thomas died and went to the Lord in 610.

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