The Icon and Its Imagery
Because no written life preceded his veneration, Phanourios is known chiefly through the iconographic program of the rediscovered icon. The icon portrays twelve scenes of his suffering: standing before a magistrate, being beaten with rocks, imprisonment with his flesh torn by iron implements, torture by fire and by mechanical crushing devices, exposure to wild beasts, burial under a boulder, hot coals placed in his palms, and a final death in a kiln.
The Cretan-school artist Angelos Akotantos painted numerous icons of Phanourios. In Crete, especially in 15th-century icons, he is often depicted killing a dragon.
Relics & Shrines
A chapel dedicated to Saint Phanourios stands near the village of Agios Georgios on the north coast of Cyprus. It lies near a deposit of fossil bones of pygmy hippopotamuses, which local tradition held to be the saint's own remains.
After his proclamation as a saint, a cathedral (by one account) was erected on Rhodes to house the discovered icon.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: A Vatican manuscript records miracles attributed to Phanourios in finding lost animals and objects and in healing people. A 2008 folklore research paper points to two surviving manuscripts — one of 1452 from Crete and another of 1600–1640 from Heraklion — that describe miracles spreading his veneration from Rhodes to Crete.
Traditional Accounts: Phanourios is especially associated with revealing what is lost or hidden, both physical objects and, by some accounts, hidden spiritual matters. A tradition holds that his mother was a sinful woman for whom he prayed fervently, though she refused to repent during her life; for this reason the cake baked in his honor is also offered for the repose of her soul.
Customs
On his feast day the faithful bake a Greek lenten cake called the Phanouropita (Fanouropita). It is a small round cake made with nine or eleven ingredients — including flour, sugar, cinnamon, and oil — and is blessed during Vespers or before the close of the Liturgy.
The cake is baked and given away when asking the saint's help, especially to find what is lost, and is offered for the repose of his mother.
