St. Righteous Eudokimos of Cappadocia

Eudokimos was born in the early ninth century in Cappadocia of a noble Christian family, distinguished from his youth for his piety, his charitable habits, and the practice of secret almsgiving. He entered the imperial service under the Emperor Theophilus (829–842) and rose to the position of military governor of a Cappadocian district, in which office he distinguished himself by his impartial justice, his refusal of bribes, and his particular care for the poor of his province.

His holiness was hidden during his lifetime beneath the duties of his rank. He fasted, prayed through the night, and gave alms in such concealment that his servants and even his family knew only the outline of his religious life. He died young, at thirty-three, in the ordinary course of administration. The synaxarion records that the depth of his holiness was revealed only after his death, when his mother — going to his tomb to gather his bones for translation to the family burial-vault — found his body whole and incorrupt and discharging a fragrant myrrh.

A series of healing miracles followed at his tomb, and his cult spread quickly through Cappadocia and Constantinople. His feast falls on July 31.