Saint Phocas was born and raised in Cilicia during the Roman Empire. His parents were Christians and his father was a nobleman. Saint Phocas loved the divine word and acted according to its will. He grew up meditating on the Holy Psalms, which he memorized by heart in six months. He loved fasting, prayer, quiet, strangers, and the poor.
His only concern was to help all those in need and destitute, because that was living according to the divine will. As long as he had the opportunity to apply everything that was pleasing to God, there was no room for hesitation. His father was rich. This helped him take his father’s money and give it to those in need. So he distributed provisions, clothing, and money without any conditions or restrictions. This was because he knew that by doing so he was storing up for himself in heaven what thieves could not steal or plunder.
When Phocas' fathers noticed everything he was doing, they became very angry with him and rejected him, because by doing so he was wasting their wealth. Phocas turned to the Lord God, saying: “I thank you and praise your name, my Lord Jesus Christ, because you made me like the two martyrs Seleucus and his fiancée Astrinace, whom their parents rejected because of their faith in Christ.”
God bestowed upon Foka the grace of healing. One day a poor man was bitten by a snake. He could not afford to pay the doctor. Foka was present and whispered in the ear of the doctor who asked to take his money in advance, that he should take from the rich according to his wealth and from the poor according to his poverty. But the doctor refused and said to Foka: Since you are a righteous man, why do you not heal him and take from him? If I do not take my reward, I will not come near him. When Foka heard that, he prayed saying: “O my Lord Jesus Christ, you are the ruler in heaven and on earth and over all the creatures that creep on the earth. Send from you, O Lord, a doctor who will not ask a fee from the poor.” The Lord God heard his call and answered his prayer. When God’s grace was upon him, the Lord God granted him to be a doctor himself in the name of Christ. When Foka felt God’s will for him and for this poor man, he prayed over him in the name of the Lord and he immediately got up, happy and cured.
Fokas remained in this condition as a physician from the Lord for seven years. When the physicians became poor, they met and consulted among themselves what they should do. They decided to get rid of him, so they chose a fierce gang leader named Mauricus. They gave him twenty dinars to kill him. Mauricus and his gang blocked the way of the saint of God and his companion John, intending to kill him. When the blessed Fokas approached them, he began reciting the psalm, which begins: “Do not be angry because of the wicked, nor envy the workers of iniquity, for they will wither like hay.” At that moment, the robbers were rooted to the spot like dry sticks. When the saint reached them and wanted to pass them by, they began to weep and cry out and cry out for help, saying: O saint of God Fokas, physician of Christ, have mercy on us! When Fokas saw that they had faith in God and that he was a servant of Christ, he stood up and prayed and said to them: Rise in the name of the Lord! They jumped up immediately and began to praise God, and their news spread throughout that country.
The envious people did not stop trying to harm the man of God. When their attempt to kill him failed, they resorted to casting magic on him. But this time it failed miserably. The evil of the affliction turned against its owner. The magic turned against the magician, and no one could save him from his evil except the man of God who prayed to God asking God to restore the magician to health and wellness. And it was so, God answered his request.
The envious devil returned and envy crept into the hearts of the enemies of faith. Those who slandered the man of God to the governor of Ain Zarba and convinced him to kill him as an evil sorcerer. The governor issued an order to kill him. After three days, the governor and his army arrived at the city of Zodia, where the man of God was. When he found out where he was, he ordered three hundred of his soldiers to come and say: “Climb the mountain where the man is and bring him down to me!” The soldiers did as they were ordered. When they reached him with difficulty, he prayed thus: “O God, make me worthy of calamities and let me dwell in the chamber of your martyrs!” They were in awe of him, but he said to them: “Who do you seek? Whom do you ask? Whom do you seek?” They said: “The governor wants you!” He said to them: “Do as your master commands you!” So they tied him with ropes and dragged him and brought him to the governor and cast him before him. His entire body was wounded; only his face remained intact. When the governor saw him, he took his spear and went to him, saying: O magician! By your magic you have corrupted every country and deceived the people of Asia, Cilicia, and Cappadocia, and you have worn me out for three days! I will make you a terror to all who know you and I will punish you severely. Then he crossed himself between his eyes and answered him: As for me, I am not a magician, but a servant of Jesus Christ, and by His power I do the wonders that I do and I overcome your father the devil and all your schemes! When the governor heard his words, he became very angry and roared like a lion, raised his spear and stabbed him in the chest, and the spear came out from between his shoulder blades and entered the ground the length of an arm.
And the blessed one cried out when he was stabbed, saying: I thank you, my God, Jesus Christ, because you have made me worthy to become one of your martyrs. I ask you, my Lord, to grant me after my death to heal and cure everyone who calls upon me, in your holy name, from the bite of a snake or any other pain, so that people may know that your power is with me after my death as it was in my life. And let, O God, a spring of water flow in this place. And let everyone who is bitten by a snake, adder, scorpion, or any creeping thing on the earth that stings and harms, come to this water and bathe in it or anoint himself with it, it will be for him for health and recovery from pain. And for whoever is not able to come to this water but is carried to it and anointed with it and given a drink from it, it will also be for him for healing.
When the saint finished his prayer, abundant water came out of the ground. The saint knew that God had answered his request, so he said: As you have accepted this prayer from me, my Lord, forgive also everyone who calls upon me in your name, and have mercy on him. And whoever celebrates a feast for your prophets or for your martyrs, let there not be in his house a blind, lame, or mangy person, and let no devil have power over him or any of his belongings. Rather, bless, O Lord, his house, his children, and his crops, as you blessed the house of your servant Job, and relieve those who call upon you and upon your Lady, your mother, forever and ever. Amen.
When he had finished his prayer, a voice came to him from heaven saying: Come, O successful worker and careful merchant, enter into the kingdom of your Master and receive the blessing, which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived, where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all the warriors are. When Phocas heard these words, he gave up his spirit to Christ.
The church commemorates him on March 5.
Quoted from the website of the two patriarchal monasteries, the Monastery of Saint George and the Cherubim
Troparia in the fourth tune
Your martyr, O Lord, by his struggle, obtained from you the crowns that do not fade, O our God, because he gained your power and crushed the usurpers and crushed the powerless demons. By his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
