Cloud of Witnesses
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Righteous5th century

Saint Constantia of Paphos

Also known as Constantia

A Cypriot woman remembered as a disciple of Saint Hilarion the Great in the ascetic life.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Mother Constantia of Paphos

Life

Constantia of Paphos was a Cypriot ascetic remembered as a disciple of Saint Hilarion the Great, the hermit whose final years were spent on Cyprus. The earliest account of her appears in Saint Jerome's Life of Hilarion, where she is named among those who sought out the holy man; later Cypriot tradition records her as the patroness of Paphos. Her commemoration is kept on August 25.

Constantia's devotion to her spiritual father defined both her ascetic life and the account of her death. After Hilarion's repose she withdrew to a life of prayer near his grave, and tradition holds that she was found worthy of working miracles through her intercession to him.

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TroparionTone 8

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy mother Constantia, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

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  1. 4th centuryDaughter and son-in-law healedAccording to Jerome's Life of Hilarion, Hilarion anointed Constantia's daughter and son-in-law with oil and saved them from death, an event that drew her to the holy man.
  2. After Hilarion's reposeAscetic life at the tombJerome relates that Constantia kept whole nights in vigil at Hilarion's tomb, conversing with him as though he were present to stir her own prayers. Cypriot tradition records that she remained near his grave struggling in asceticism.
  3. After the translation of Hilarion's relicsDeath on hearing of the relicsAfter Hilarion's disciple Hesychius secretly removed the saint's body from Cyprus to Palestine, a message reached Constantia that the relics were in Palestine; Jerome records that she immediately died, proving even by her death the sincerity of her love for the servant of God.

Contributions & Legacy

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Veneration and Patronage

Later Cypriot writers preserved Constantia's memory after the period covered by Jerome. The chronographer Cyprian mentions her, and the sixteenth-century Cypriot scholar Stefano Lusignan (1537-1590), a priest and descendant of King James I of Cyprus, identified her as the patron of the city of Paphos.

A complete liturgical service in her honor is preserved in the Cypriot Menaion. After a long period of obscurity, her veneration was renewed in the modern era, with a vigil reported at the Holy Monastery of Panagia Salamiotissa in Anavargos on her feast in 2011.

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Spiritual father; the hermit of Palestine and disciple of Saint Anthony whose final years were spent on Cyprus, whom Constantia followed in the ascetic life and at whose tomb she kept vigil after his repose.
Venerable Hilarionthe Great
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Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints