ABSTRACT
St Phanourios, celebrated on 27 August, is an enigmatic saint. He is commemorated in the synaxaria of the nineteenth century, such as the Neon Leimonarion, the Synaxarion of Nikodemos Agioreites, and the Megas Synaxaristes of Konstantinos Doukakes, though he is not mentioned in such Byzantine synaxaria, as the Menologion of Basil II, the Synaxarion of Symeon Metaphrastes or the Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Despite the later date of the Herakleion manuscript its information seems historically more likely than that of the Vat. Gr. 1190. The nineteenth-century synaxaria describe the icon of Rhodes as showing the saint in military uniform and holding in his right hand a cross, which supported a burning candle.
