Saint Parthenios Bishop of Lampsacus

Parthenios was a fourth-century bishop of Lampsacus, a city on the Hellespont in Asia Minor, remembered in the Orthodox synaxarion as a wonderworker noted especially for healing the sick and casting out demons. He was the son of a deacon of Melitopolis, and the tradition relates that although he remained unlettered in his youth, he came to know the Holy Scriptures by attending the divine services and listening attentively to their reading in church. He is commemorated on February 7.

Before his episcopate Parthenios worked as a fisherman and, according to the accounts of his life, distributed the proceeds of his labor to the poor rather than keeping them for himself. He was ordained to the priesthood by his local bishop and given charge of visiting the Christians of the diocese, and he was subsequently consecrated Bishop of Lampsacus during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great. The sources place his appointment to the see in the early fourth century, a time when many of the inhabitants of the region were still pagan.

As bishop he devoted himself to spreading the Christian faith among a largely pagan population, and the synaxarion attributes his success to both his preaching and the many miracles and healings worked through his prayers. He is said to have travelled to the court of Constantine the Great to request authorization to destroy the pagan temples of his city so that Christian churches could be built in their place; the emperor received him and provided the means for building a church. The tradition relates that he foretold his own repose and gave back his soul to God in his old age.