Venerable Phantinus the Younger of Thessalonica

Venerable Phantinus was born around 902 in Calabria (southern Italy) to noble parents, George and Vriena. At age eight he was given into the care of the elder Elijah the Cave-Dweller and took monastic vows, practicing strict fasting and seclusion. He later lived as a hermit near Mount Mercurius. After Saracen raids destroyed that settlement, he relocated with his disciples Vitalis and Nikephoros through the Peloponnese, Corinth, and Athens to Thessalonica, where he settled near the church of the Great Martyr Menas, performed healings, and provided spiritual guidance to many. He died in Thessalonica in 974. His memory is kept on November 14/27 (the historical date of his repose), transferred from the 12th century onward to August 30/September 12. He should be distinguished from his older namesake — the Confessor Phantinus of Calabria (Tauriana), who suffered for the faith in the 3rd-4th centuries, whose memory is kept on August 6, and who never relocated to Thessalonica.