A wealthy man of Gaza who spent his resources helping the poor, sick, and homeless, and accepted poverty and suffering with patience.
Our Venerable Father Theophanes the Merciful of Gaza
Theophanes the Merciful was a righteous layman of Gaza, a city of the Holy Land, remembered for the extraordinary generosity that earned him his epithet. The Orthodox sources describe him as a kind and merciful man who took in the homeless, helped the poor and the sick, and spent all his substance on the needy, so that he himself was left in want.
His sources record no dates of birth or death and assign him no fixed century; he is preserved in the synaxarion as an example of mercy and of patient endurance in suffering. He is commemorated on September 29.
The accounts of Theophanes center entirely on his works of mercy. Dwelling in Gaza, he received vagrants and the homeless, cared for the poor and the sick, and gave away the whole of his means to relieve the needy. The sources emphasize that this giving was complete: in spending all his substance on others, he reduced himself to the same want as those he served.
Toward the end of his life Theophanes was afflicted with dropsy. His body, the sources relate, began to swell, to break down, and to give off a stench, and he suffered greatly. He bore this ordeal in good spirit, giving thanks to God for all things.
By tradition, as he lay dying a fierce storm was raging, and his wife grieved over how he would be buried. He assured her that the storm would cease, by the will of God, when he died — and the account relates that the storm ended at the very moment of his passing.
After his death, the sources relate that the body of Theophanes was completely cleansed of its wounds and decay and became fragrant, giving forth an abundant healing myrrh by which many were healed of their diseases. This posthumous transformation is the principal miracle associated with him.