Feast CompanionsCommemorated together · April 5

Saints Theonas, Symeon and Phorbinus of Egypt

Three fathers of the Egyptian desert whose names the calendar has kept together on April 5 though little else of them survives — a commemoration that stands for the whole unnumbered company of the Egyptian solitaries.

Feast Day
April 5
Old Calendar · April 18
April 5 · Theonas, Symeon and Phorbinus
3CommemoratedSee the full roster ↓
Come to them for
Hidden Labour
Work and prayer that no one records
About the group

Three names, kept together on one day, and almost nothing else. The synaxarion commemorates Theonas, Symeon and Phorbinus on April 5 as ascetics of Egypt, and the notices give no lives — no country of birth, no monastery, no account of their labours or their end.

This is honest rather than deficient. The desert of Egypt held thousands whose names were never written down, and a commemoration like this one is where the calendar admits it. Standing on the same day are the venerable Publius of Egypt and Mark the Anchorite, whose stories did survive; these three are remembered for having been there.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Apr 5