Talk:Christopher of Lycia

Orthodox Historical version

I have kept the article to a brief because I have been brought up to know that not much is known of the Saint other than he carried Christ across the river. more detailed information was never confirmed in any written source. However, I did find this link (today):

http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsLife.asp?FSID=101334

which gives much detail about his martyrdom and his real name but I did not want to include the information into the article because it does not cite its source(s) ... and I have the idea that some of it could be Roman_catholic based ... can someone who is familiar with the authors of OCA find out how they compiled the OCA article? :-) If the full English text is translated from an old Orthodox Synaxarion then i would love someone to confirm that and include the additional information into the article.

Many thanks. i hope this saves!! Vasiliki 00:00, June 2, 2008 (UTC)

You might try emailing the OCA site people to ask them. They may have different sources for each article. I removed the "14 holy helpers" mention after reading (albeit on wikipedia) that this was a grouping of the 14th century by Roman Catholics. I also would like some support for the statement "However, these images have made him especially popular among the Roman Catholics who have created many stories to explain his "cynocephalatic" appearance."—I don't know that the dog-headed images were what made him especially popular among Roman Catholics. (As a convert from Roman Catholicism, I can honestly say I'd never heard about the dog-headed aspect until today.) I added external links in the hopes that they would balance each other out. —magda (talk) 01:32, June 2, 2008 (UTC)

Hi Magda, this is a very interesting question that you raise and its infact quite controversial in its responses and I am thinking that maybe (from an Encyclopedic reporting POV) I have expressed an assumed opinion based on a google search on the term (to find) that most articles on the “Cynocephalus” legend are Roman Catholic in origin.

Another article that I read (and I refer you to) but not used for OW was “Cynocephaly” on Wikipedia. This is a well written article but (1) it misrepresents the Eastern Orthodox Church formal position on these old icons and (2) the idea that Christopher is a descendant from the Chananeans etc as held as being a pagan and christian point of view is NOT the Orthodox Church POV and nor does the orthodox church encourage the notion that the ‘dog-headed’ icons represent that he was a mythical ugly creature who once baptised was transformed into a normal looking person. Infact, the orthodox tradition is that he was tall and handsome.

That is sort of why I was curious to find out what the OCA source is because I would love to be able to refer MYSELF to the appropriate Synaxarion for this saint to know once and for all the propert and formal position of the orthodox church regarding his life Vasiliki 01:52, June 2, 2008 (UTC)