One of my favorite things to discover are new traditions that I can share with my family, so I thought it would be fun to share a little tradition with you that you may or may not know about! 

Have you ever heard of St. Phanourios? I sure hadn't!  Well, that is, I hadn't until my friend introduced me to him! One morning, Elizabeth and I showed up to my friend Alexis' apartment for a usual playdate/mommy-hang-out. She set out homemade donuts on a pretty wooden cake stand on her kitchen island and had iced coffee ready to go. Side note, if you ever get the chance to make a friend like this, never let them go! GOD BLESS HER! I was struck with how adorable these donuts looked all covered in yummy powered sugar and inquired more about them. She said "Oh this is my St. Phanourios cake I was telling you about! I just made it in donut form!"  I'm pretty sure my response was something dramatic like, "Ummm what? Is this a thing? I forgot! Remind me again about this Saint."

Have you ever lost something and thought, "Gosh I wish I could find that! If I could, I would ______." Well, this might interest you! St. Phanourios is known in the Orthodox Church as a saint who helps people find lost or stolen items, or helps single people find a spouse! Neat huh? We can ask the Saints for help! We ask St. Phanourios to help us find whatever it is we lost, and when we find it, we bake a cake and share it with friends and loved ones as a way of giving thanks. And today is actually St. Phanourios' feast day (August 27th). Which is just another great reason to make these yummy treats!

Later Alexis explained how she lost her daughter's earrings that were a very special gift, so she prayed and asked for St. Phaniourios help to find them, and she found them! So as a way of giving thanks, she baked Fanouropita (or St. Phanourios cake). I asked her if other people make this cake into donuts too, because clearly I've never heard of it, and she actually wasn't sure if anyone did, but she had a really great recipe from Figs and Feta Blog that she adapted and made into donuts. GENIUS! What a fun way to give thanks to God for His saints for helping her find those special earrings that went missing. Not to mention a very YUMMY thanks!  I cannot wait to share this tradition with my own family and to teach my children these rich traditions as we live out the life of the church! 

You can find the recipe for Fanouropita that Alexis used here (just bake it in a donut pan instead). If you want to read more about the life of St. Phanourios, I've linked a few useless websites below:

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Phanourios   

https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2015/08/saint-phanourios-resource-page.html

And just for fun, here are some cute pictures we took of Elizabeth later that day in Central Park. Mommy playdates with a photographer are the best!

-Destinie