Agapitus the Confessor was a fourth-century monastic, soldier, and bishop of Synnada in Phrygia, in Asia Minor, remembered as a confessor of the faith and a worker of many miracles. According to the synaxarion he was born in Cappadocia to devout Christian parents and lived during the persecutions of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. From his youth he was drawn to the monastic life and entered a monastery near Synnada, where he gave himself to fasting and prayer. He is commemorated on February 18.
The tradition relates that Agapitus received from God an abundant gift of wonderworking, ascribing to him more than a hundred miracles. The most famous of these is the slaying, through his prayers, of a great dragon that had been ravaging the region around the monastery and carrying off both people and animals. During the reign of Licinius he was conscripted into military service against his will, and amid the renewed persecution of Christians he witnessed the sufferings of the martyrs Victor, Dorotheos, Theodoulos, and Agrippa. Though he himself was wounded by a spear, by tradition he survived.
When the emperor Constantine the Great learned of his power of healing, he sent an ailing servant to Agapitus, who cured him. Offered rewards in gratitude, the saint asked only to be released from the army and allowed to return to his monastery, a request the emperor granted. After his return, the bishop of Synnada ordained him to the priesthood, and upon that bishop's death the clergy and people unanimously chose Agapitus to succeed him. As bishop he shepherded his flock faithfully, continued to work miracles through his prayers, and at last reposed in peace.
