Life and Ascetic Practice
By the synaxarion's account Kanides was the child of devout Cappadocian parents, Theodotos and Theophano, and his life is marked by ascetic discipline from its very beginning: tradition relates that his mother abstained from rich foods throughout her pregnancy. While still a small child, he was drawn to the solitary life, and after his baptism and weaning he is said to have left for a mountain at about the age of seven, enclosing himself in a small cave.
There he is described as living in extreme austerity, taking a single weekly meal of raw vegetables without salt. The sources add that the damp of the cave caused the hair of his head and beard to fall away. The synaxarion relates that he continued in this manner for some seventy-three years before reposing in peace; the OCA account dates his repose to the year 460. He is commemorated among the saints of Cappadocia.