Canides

ON SAINT CANIDES, RECLUSE IN CAPPADOCIA.

From the Great Menaea of the Greeks.

AFTER THE YEAR CCCCLX.

Canides, Recluse in Cappadocia (S.)

G. H.

In the Menology of Cardinal Sirletus on S. Canides on this X June, these things are read. On the same day in Cappadocia our holy Father Canides, Elogium from the Menology of Sirletus, son of pious parents Theodotus and Theophana under Theodosius the Great the Emperor. He lived using admirable abstinence, intent on prayers and fasts: and feeding on very few vegetables not seasoned, came to the seventy-third year, and so that Blessed one passed to the Lord.

[2] and a greater from the Menaea, In the printed Menaea and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera, these are more amply explained in this manner. "On the same day, of our holy Father Canides. He was in the reign of Theodosius the Great, son of Theodotus and Theophana, having their dwellings in the country of the Cappadocians, being devout and God-loving. It is said about his mother that she abstained from all coarser food, during the time when she bore him in her womb: and when he was born he abstained completely from the right breast; whenever the mother had more abundant food, he did not even touch the left breast at all. Therefore having been baptized and weaned, and having passed through the things of the first age, bidding farewell to all, he took to the mountain: and entering a small cave, having shut himself in it, devoting himself to prayer and fasting, and once a week tasting of very small raw vegetables without salt, he endured for seventy-three years. But the place was very subject to waters, and the cave besieged by much moisture, the hairs of his head and beard were corrupted. So therefore having endured long, the Blessed one departed to the Lord." That is.

[3] On the same day of our holy Father Canides. Under the reign of Theodosius the Great, with father Theodotus, where the wondrous abstinence of the infant is praised, mother Theophana, pious and religious parents, who dwelt in Cappadocia, he was born. It is told of his mother, that she abstained from all richer or daintier food, while she carried this one in her womb. The infant when born, they say, always abstained from the right breast. If the mother then used a more delicate table, then he did not even touch the left. Washed with the sacred wave of baptism, and removed from his mother's milk, when he came out of first childhood, having bidden farewell to all his own, he goes off to the mountain; and ascetic life of 73 years in a damp cave. and entering a narrow cave, in it he enclosed himself, and intent on prayers vacated himself for fasts. Once a week very few and those raw vegetables, not seasoned with salt, he tasted. So three and seventy years he passed: and because the place was wont to be greatly inundated with waters, and the cave to be besieged with much moisture, both the hairs of his head and beard flowed off; yet for many years thus he passed, until they being completed, he passed to the Lord. These things there.

[4] Theodosius the Great named above reigned from the year 379 to 395, under whom the Saint is said Time of life. to have been born; and to have spent 73 years, and that almost entirely in the cave; and so he seems to have lived past the year 460. We marvel, that in so many Ms. Synaxaries we have found nothing about him so far: and thence we conclude that this Saint is so proper to Cappadocia, that he would even now lie hidden, unless he had become privately known to the collector of the Menaea, through some Cappadocian, aware of the singular cult there.