Mar Fawqa - Bishop of Sinope - 22 September

St Fawqa was born in the city of Sinope. He led a virtuous Christian life from when he was young, and in his adult years he became Bishop of Sinope. He converted many pagans to faith in Christ. At the time of a persecution against Christians under the emperor Trajan (98-117), the governor demanded that the saint renounce Christ. After fierce torture they enclosed St Fawqa in a hot bath, where he died a martyr’s death in the year 117.
In the year 404, the relics of the saint were transferred to Constantinople (July 22) at which time St John Chrysostom wrote a homily encouraging the people to come to the festivities and explaining the blessing that the people could receive. It is a great explanation of why we venerate the relics of Saints
'...no glory will attach to the martyr from the attendance of large numbers, the blessing to you from being in the martyr's presence will be substantial. For just as the person who looks towards the sun dosn't make that star more brilliant, but floods their own eyes with light; so, too then, the person who honours a martyr dosn't make him more radiant, but draws from him the lights blessing.'
A monastery dedicated to St Fawqa and dating back more rang 1600 years can be found at Hardine Lebanon. The Monk of San Silvestro, in his Greek manuscript that dates back to the mid seventeenth century, states, “…when the light of Christianity dawned on the mountain, the monks entered and transformed it into a monastery for prayer in the sixth century…the monastery had been built in the sixth century, but an earthquake destroyed it…the monks reconstructed it…”; the monastery of Saint Fawqa became an important monasteries. In 1940, the Ottomans occupied it, robbed the money, ransacked its furniture, and took hold of the estates and the forests and all the produce.
St Fawqa pray for us.