Venerable Constantine of Synnada

Constantine of Synnada was a Byzantine-era monastic ascetic of Asia Minor, remembered as a convert to Christianity of Jewish descent. According to the hagiographical tradition, he was a native of Synnada, a town in Phrygia (identified with the modern site of Suhut in Turkey), where an active Christian community lived alongside the Jewish family into whose faith and learning he was born. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on December 26.

The synaxarion relates that Constantine was drawn toward Christianity from his youth. The tradition recounts that as a young man he observed a Christian making the sign of the Cross and began to imitate the gesture, and that careful study of the teachings of Christ deepened his attraction to the faith despite his upbringing. He ultimately left his parents to pursue the monastic life, was baptized with the name Constantine, and received the monastic tonsure, after which he devoted himself to strict asceticism.

Constantine is principally remembered for a sign associated with the Cross. The tradition holds that when he venerated the Holy Cross at his baptism, kissing it and touching it to his head, the image of the Cross was impressed upon his forehead and remained there for the rest of his life. He lived out his years in monastic discipline and, after completing his ascetic labors, is said to have departed peacefully to the Lord.