I wanted to share a short story of why St Phanourios is so dear to me, and how St Phanourios helped us find our home. I’ve been wanting to share this for some time, so this is the year I will finally write down all the detail about our own personal miracle, thanks to St Phanourios.

Several years ago, we had moved to our current location as my husband was assigned as head Priest to our current parish. After several months of living here, we settled on purchasing a home nearby. It was the end of 2020 and the market in our area was intense! We happen to live in an area that was growing rapidly so the offers that were being accepted on the homes we could afford were thousands and thousands over asking. We were beginning to feel discouraged as we placed offers on homes that were not accepted. A friend of mine, Kh Alexis, reminded me about St Phanourios, how he helps people find lost things but he also helps people find things too! She’s the one who first introduced me to this saint to begin with! I knew he was one to call upon when you lost something, but I hadn’t thought of him as someone to ask for help with a home. But it dawned on me, he’s a finder saint! I was so excited to ask for his help. I said a quick prayer, “St Phanourios, please help us find a suitable house - one that the Lord has prepared for us!” Literally the next day a home popped up on our search that wasn’t there before. The listing said it has been on the market for 75 days, which is not possible since we were checking every day for several months! Usually when a home has been on the market for a bit, I sort of assume it has something wrong with it. But it fit our search parameters and price range.

The next day my husband and I loaded up our kids and drove to the house to snoop a little bit. Upon driving up to the house, I said immediately “Oh my goodness, I’m going to get my heart broken again, aren’t I?” It was love at first sight. It was charming, near a park and several stores that would be considered walkable (a huge plus) and a nice sized backyard. Literally my dream house. It even had a swing set in the backyard. I was already imagining my life here, seeing my kids running around in the backyard. But given the craziness in the market, I knew there was a slim chance we could actually buy this home. We called our agent and asked him to meet us at the house at his earliest convenience, and he was able to meet us within the hour. After a quick call to the selling agent, we found out there has been no offers on this home yet, and it’s been on the market for 2 days. He said after talking to the agent, this home was in escrow with another buyer but they were not able to secure a loan so it fell out of escrow and is back on the market. But because of this, we have all the inspection reports available which we could look at. There is nothing majorly wrong with the house and the roof and AC units are only a few years old. We were astounded! We made one quick look at another house so we could make an informed decision. We wanted THIS house! Our agent told us to wait until the next day to make an offer, since no one has put in an offer, since this will allow us to make a lower-than-asking-price offer that he felt confident the sellers would accept. I slept terribly that night, so worried we were going to miss this chance!

The next morning we put in an offer and by the end of the day, we were accepted! We were THE ONLY OFFER which is absolutely crazy considering the location and the market at the time. I truly believe that St Phanourios was our assistant in helping us not only find this home, but he helped us through every step of the process. I imagine him blinding all the people and the search engines so they didn’t even see the house haha. We ended up having the price lowered even more due to a few hiccups along the way, so not only did we get the house of our dreams, but it was $10,000 UNDER asking and the lowest interest rate I can even fathom because of the time of our purchase. Glory to God for all things! The Lord is wondrous in his saints!

I feel so thankful to St Phanourios and I will share his story and the special Phanouropita tradition with any one who will listen! Each year we bake phanouropita on his feast day and give thanks to God for our beautiful home. The Lord truly provides for us beyond my wildest dreams. Did you know when you find something with the help of St Phanourios, there is a tradition to bake a cake? You can read more about baking phanouropita- a special tradition in this blogpost.

Not only is he a finder saint, but he is a dear companion and speedy helper!

May we have St Phanourios’ blessing!

I’ll leave you with one of my passages in the Scriptures:

Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not[c]arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will Henot much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.