SAINT XENOPHON, OF CONSTANTINOPLE 9497Home » Shop » Icons » SAINT XENOPHON, OF CONSTANTINOPLE 9497

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St. Xenophon was a wealthy and well-known senator and citizen of Constantinople in the time of the Emperor Justinian (a.d. 483-565).  St. Xenophon was married to Maria, and had two sons, John and Arcadius.  When the time for their sons’ advanced studies came, Xenophon and Maria sent their sons to Beirut, Lebanon, by ship, but the ship floundered, and in the confusion of the shipwreck, each brother thought that the other had died.  Struck by this tragedy, they both entered the monastic life at separate monasteries.

When no news came back to St. Xenophon and Maria, they presumed they were dead and mourned for them.  Years later a monk met the couple when visiting Constantinople, and suggested that their son Arcadius might be alive and living at St. Sava’s Lavra near Jerusalem. Inspired by God, the Monk John traveled to the Holy Land at the same time, and the family was reunited by God’s great Providence. Inspired and humbled by this great good fortune, both St. Xenophon and Maria also entered the monastic life, leaving their worldly life behind. St. Xenophon, dressed as a monk, holds a scroll in this icon which says, “For love of God.”

Feast Day: 26th January