St Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople (+1460)

Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, came from Greece. He became a monk in Epidaurus. After the death of his teacher Antony the blessed one laboured on Mount Athos and was occupied with copying books. At various times he occupied the sees of Metropolitan of Thessalonica, Patriarch of Constantinople and hierarch of Wallachia… Driven from his diocese for denouncing lawlessness, the holy father went again to Athos: first he laboured in the monastery of Vatopedi, and then in the monastery of the Nativity of John the Baptist (the monastery of Dionysiou). He concealed his rank and always carried out the lowliest obediences, but the Lord revealed to the monks by a divine revelation who he was. Once, as the saint was returning to the monastery after going into the forest to gather firewood, the brethren came out to meet him and greeted him with ceremony, as a patriarch. In spite of this the hierarch Niphon was afterwards in no way distinguished from the other monks: he shared the burden of their labour equally.

The holy father died on 11 August 1460, at the age of ninety.