Perth: Feast Day of Saint Theoklitos the Martyr 

On Monday, 26 February 2024, the Feast Day of Saint Theoklitos the Martyr was celebrated at the Church of Saint Nektarios in Dianella, Perth.

Father Theoklitos Tsahouridis, a retired priest of the Archdiocesan District of Perth, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the presence of His Grace Bishop Elpidios of Kyanea.

Saint Theoklitos the martyr, known prior as Lampadios, was a servant of magic and tried to poison Saint Photini, the Samaritan woman who Christ visited at the well. 

Being unsuccessful he was in turn baptised with the name Theoklitos. 

In the Synaxarion of Saint Photini, we read how she and her companions were ordered by the emperor to be given a deadly potion. Lampadios the magician, was called in to prepare the poisonous potion, which was first taken by Saint Photini then followed by her companions. 

After they all drank, they remained unharmed, and the magician was dumbfounded. Turning to Saint Photini, he said, “I have concocted another potion which is more powerful. If you drink it and not instantly die, then I too will believe in your Christ.” 

They all drank from this as well and were not harmed. Then seeing this, the magician Lampadios took his magic books and cast them into the fire, and he believed in Christ, was baptised and renamed Theoklitos. 

When the Emperor learned of this, he ordered that Saint Theoklitos be captured and that he be taken outside the walls of the city and beheaded thus becoming a martyr of the Church.

At the conclusion of the service His Grace Bishop Elpidios, on behalf of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, wished Father Theoklitos a very blessed Name Day and prayed that God grant him many more years of good health and strength.

His Grace, on behalf of all the clergy and faithful of the Archdiocesan District of Perth, presented Father Theoklitos an epigonation depicting Saint Paisios the Athonite, who at the 12th Clergy-Laity Congress of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, was officially declared by His Eminence and all participants as being the patron, guardian and protector of Australia and our Holy Archdiocese.

A celebratory morning tea then followed in the Archdiocesan District of Perth Function Centre.