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WITH respect to Spyridon, so great was his sanctity while a
shepherd, that he was thought worthy of being made a Pastor of men:
and having been assigned the bishopric of one of the cities in Cyprus
named Trimithus, on account of his extreme humility he continued to
feed his sheep during his incumbency of the bishopric. Many
extraordinary things are related of him: I shall however record but
one or two, lest I should seem to wander from my sub-carry off some
of the sheep. But God who came to the sheep and found the men with
their hands tied behind them, he understood what was done: and after
having prayed he liberated the thieves, earnestly admonishing and
exhorting them to support themselves by honest labor, and not to take
anything unjustly. He then gave them a ram, and sent them away,
humorously adding, ' that ye may not appear to have watched all night
in vain.' This is one of the miracles in connection with Spyridon.
Another was of this kind. He had a virgin daughter named Irene, who
was a partaker of her father's piety. An acquaintance entrusted to
her keeping an ornament of considerable value: she, to guard it more
securely, hid what had been deposited with her in the ground, and not
long afterwards died. Subsequently the owner of the property came to
claim it; and not finding the virgin, he began an excited conversation
with the father, at times accusing him of an attempt to defraud him,
and then again beseeching him to restore the deposit. The old man,
regarding this person's loss as his own misfortune, went to the tomb
of his daughter, and called upon God to show him before its proper
season the promised resurrection. Nor was he disappointed in his
hope: for the virgin again retiring appeared to her father, and having
pointed out to him the spot where she had hidden the ornament, she once
more departed. Such characters as these adorned the churches in the
time of the emperor Constantine. These details I obtained from many
inhabitants of Cyprus. I have also found a treatise composed in
Latin by the presbyter Rufinus, from which I have collected these
and some other things which will be hereafter adduced.
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