Martyr Phocas the Gardener of Sinope

Saint Phocas was a humble gardener in the city of Sinope on the Black Sea coast, earning his living by selling the vegetables he grew, known for his hospitality to travelers and charity to the poor; through his gentle preaching he converted his pagan neighbors to Christ.

When the governor of Sinope ordered his execution for spreading the Christian faith, the soldiers sent to kill him, not recognizing their intended victim in the hospitable gardener who took them in, spent the night at his home, receiving food and shelter from him. The next morning Phocas himself revealed who he was, refused their offer to help him flee, had already dug his own grave in his garden, and accepted beheading, being buried in that very grave.

IMPORTANT NOTE: church tradition often confuses this saint with another, distinct saint — Hieromartyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope (feast July 22/August 4, boiled alive in a bathhouse under Emperor Trajan), already documented in our database as a separate entry (hieromartyr_phocas_of_sinope); both Phocases came from the same city and were therefore sometimes historically conflated in later oral tradition, but they are two distinct saints. The image of an ancient gold coin (solidus) bearing the portrait of the BYZANTINE EMPEROR Phocas (r. 602–610) — a secular ruler who lived three centuries later — is a contamination from name coincidence and has been entirely removed from this entry.

His feast is kept on September 22/October 5.