Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Usuardus, by the Greeks on Dec. 12. Authorities Ruffinus, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 5; Socrates, H. E. lib. i. c. 12; Sozomen, H.E. lib. i. c. n; S. Athanas, Apol. 2; Photius, Biblioth. sub nom.] MONG the bishops who assembled at the council of Nicaea, one of the most remarkable was Spiridion, bishop of Trimithus, in the island of Cyprus. He had been a shepherd before he was made bishop; he remained a shepherd afterwards. Strange tales circulated about him. It was said that one night robbers entered his fold to steal a sheep, when they found themselves arrested by invisible bonds. In the morning when the shepherd-bishop came to let forth his sheep, he found the robbers in his fold. “Take a ram and begone, that your trouble may not be unrepaid,” he said. “ But I wish you Dec. i*.
Chad asked me for one before you ventured to lay hands on my sheep.” On the death of his wife, his daughter Irene attended him; but she died also. One day a man asked him to restore a deposit that had been left with Irene. The bishop was in despair; his daughter had not told him where she had concealed it He went to her grave, and called her by name. She answered, and asked what he wanted. “Where, my child, have you hidden the deposit confided to you ?” She told him where it was buried. He dug on the spot indicated, and was able to give the money back to the depositor. Two less marvellous but more instructive stories bring out the simplicity of his character. He rebuked a celebrated preacher at Cyprus for altering, in a quotation from the Gospels, the homely word for “bed” into “couch.” “What ! are you better than He who said ‘bed/ that you are ashamed to use His words?”
On the occasion of a wayworn traveller coming to him in Lent [the forty days of fasting before Easter], finding no other food in the house, he presented him with salted pork; and when the stranger declined, saying that he could not break his Lenten fast, the bishop replied, “ So much the more reason have you for eating. To the pure, all things are pure,” and began himself to eat the pork. “ A characteristic legend attaches to the account of his journey to the council of Nicaea. It was his usual practice to travel on foot; but on this occasion, the length of the journey, as well as the dignity of his office, induced him to ride, in company with his deacon, on two mules, a white and a chestnut One night, on his arrival at a caravanserai, where a cavalcade of orthodox bishops were already assembled, the mules were turned out to pasture, whilst he retired to his devotions. The bishops had conceived an alarm lest the cause of orthodoxy should suffer in the council by the ignorance or awkwardness of the shepherd of Cyprus, when opposed to the subtleness of the Alexandrian heretic. Accordingly, taking advantage of this encounter, they determined to throw a decisive impediment in his way. They cut off the heads of his two mules, and then, as is the custom in oriental travelling, started on their journey before sunrise. Spiridion also rose, but was met by his terrified deacon, announcing the unexpected disaster. On arriving at the spot, the saint bade the deacon attach the heads to the dead bodies. He did so, and at a sign from the bishop, the two mules, with their restored heads, shook themselves as if from a deep sleep, and started to their feet. Spiridion and the deacon mounted, and soon overtook the travellers. As the day broke, the prelates and the deacon were alike astonished at seeing that he, performing the annexation in the dark and in haste, had fixed the heads on the wrong shoulders, so that the white mule had now a chestnut head, and the chestnut mule had the head of its white companion. Thus the miracle was doubly attested, the bishops doubly discomfited, and the simplicity of Spiridion doubly exemplified.” 1 Many more stories might be told of him, but to use the words of an ancient writer who has related some of them, “ from the claws you can make out the lion.”3 A large number of the bishops present at the council of Nicaea were rough, simple, almost illiterate men, holding their faith earnestly and sincerely, but without being able very clearly to explain the grounds of their belief, or to enter into the arguments of the philosophical Arians [followers of Arius, who taught that the Son is a created being, not fully God] of the polished Alexandrian Church. A story somewhat variously related is told of an encounter of one of these simple characters, whom later writers identify with Spiridion, from oral tradition at Mount Athos and in Corfu. The horses are no doubt the legacy of primitive mythology: the white horse of Day with the dark head of Evening, and the dark horse of Night with the luminous head of Morning. 3 Photius, Biblioth. 471.
S. Spirtdion. with more philosophical combatants. As Socrates describes the incident, the disputes were running so high, from the mere pleasure of argument, that there seemed likely to be no end to the controversy, when suddenly a simple-minded layman, who by his sightless eye or limping leg bore witness to his having played the man for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303], stepped amongst them, and said abruptly: “ Christ and His Apostles left us, not a system of logic, nor a vain deceit, but a naked truth, to be guarded by faith and good works.” The bystanders were struck, the disputants were silenced, and the hubbub of controversy subsided. Another version of the story, or another story of the same kind, with a somewhat different moral, is told by Sozomen and Ruffinus, and amplified by later writers. A heathen philosopher named Eulogius took occasion from the animosities and heartburnings of those present at Nicaea to proclaim the superiority of paganism, its large toleration, its genial readiness to admit of all kinds of worship; and to argue against the pretensions of Christianity. An aged bishop who was present, uncouth in appearance, mutilated by the cruelty of persecution, was unable to bear the taunts with which the philosopher assailed a group of Christians, amongst whom he was standing, and he worked his way to the forefront and prepared to meet him in argument. His wild, ragged appearance, and his deformity, provoked a burst of derisive laughter from the crowd, and the Christians were not a little uneasy at seeing their cause undertaken by so unskilled a champion. But he felt himself strong in his own simplicity. “ In the name of Jesus Christ,” he called to his antagonist, “hear me, philosopher. There is one God, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, who made all things by the power of His Word, and by the holiness of His Spirit. This Word, by which name we call the Son of God, took compassion on men for, their wandering astray, and for their savage condition, and chose to be bom of a woman, and to converse with men, and to die for them, and He shall come again to judge every one for the things done in life. These things we believe without curious inquiry. Cease therefore the vain labour of seeking proofs for or against what is established by faith, and the manner in which these things may be or may not be; but, if thou believest, answer at once to me as I put my questions to you.”
The philosopher was struck dumb by this new mode oi argument. He could only reply that he assented. “ Then,” answered the old man, u if thou believest this, rise and follow me to the Lord's house, and receive the sign of this faith.” The philosopher turned round to his disciples, or to those who had been gathered round him by curiosity. “ Hear,” he said, “ my learned friends. So long as it was a matter of words, I opposed words to words, and whatever was spoken I overthrew by my skill in speaking; but when, in the place of words, power came out of the speaker's lips, words could no longer resist power. If any of you feel as I have felt, let him believe in Christ, and follow this old man through whose mouth God has spoken.” Exaggerated or not, this story is a proof of the magnetic power of earnestness and simplicity over argument and speculation. Later historians than Sozomen unhesitatingly identify this uncouth but vehement bishop with Spiridion of Cyprus. Tradition has preserved another incident of his acts at the council. He is said, aware of his incapacity for argument, to have taken a brick into the council, and said to the Arians, “ You deny that Three can be One. Look at this brick, composed of the elements of earth and water and fire, and yet it is one.” And as he spoke the brick resolved itself into its component parts: the fire flashed out, the water poured down, and the clay remained in his hands. Thus he is SS. Nicasius and Eutropia.
represented in the pictures of the Nicene Council in Greek churches. Spiridion died probably not long after the council. His body rested many years in his native Cyprus, it was thence transferred to Constantinople, and thence, a few years before the fall of the empire, his body was translated to Corfu, where it is still preserved. Twice a year in solemn procession he is carried round the streets of Corfu.
