Hierarch Unknown

Saint Meletius Bishop of Cyprus

Also known as Meletios

A bishop of Cyprus commemorated by the Church, of whom no detailed life survives.

Feast Day
September 21
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.
Commemorated as

Saint Meletius, Bishop of Cyprus

Life

Meletius was a bishop of the Church of Cyprus who is commemorated on September 21. No detailed biography of him survives, and the Orthodox Church in America's synaxarion preserves no events from his life; the troparion appointed for his feast characterizes him chiefly by his virtues, describing him as having been 'revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence.'

In the liturgical tradition Meletius is paired with another bishop of Cyprus, Isaac, and the two are most often commemorated together on September 21. The Synaxarion of Constantinople, however, assigns Meletius to September 20 and Isaac to September 21. According to this tradition Isaac held the see at an earlier date than Meletius. The era in which either lived is not specified in the available sources, and the anchor record classes Meletius's period as unknown.

The surviving synaxarion notices present both bishops as models of pastoral charity. They are described as pious men who feared God, who gave away all that they had to the poor, and who provided aid and consolation to orphans, widows, and the destitute. Beyond material relief they are remembered as teachers who did not cease to instruct the people in the words of Christ, and both are said to have been granted the working of wonders. The accounts of their deaths diverge: one tradition holds that Isaac ended his life in martyrdom by beheading while Meletius reposed in peace at an advanced age, whereas the Menologion of Basil II relates that both reposed in peace.

Contributions & Legacy

1 contributions Read Hide

Sources and the limits of the record

Meletius is among the many early bishops of Cyprus whose veneration is securely attested in the calendar but whose biography has not been transmitted in detail. The OCA notice supplies no historical particulars, and the fuller narrative that does survive treats him together with Isaac rather than as the subject of an independent life.

Because the principal accounts differ on points as basic as the manner of his commemoration and the deaths of the two bishops, the tradition is reported here as the sources report it. Where the record is silent — on dates, family, and the specific events of his episcopate — this profile leaves the matter open rather than supplying conjecture.

Notes

Honest stub; OCA gives no life details.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints