Spyridon was born around the year 270 in a village in Cyprus, of poor Christian parents. He worked from his boyhood as a shepherd, married a quiet wife, and lived in such hospitality that the door of his house was never closed against the stranger or the poor. When his wife reposed, he was given to the priesthood, and not long afterward to the small see of Trimythous in Cyprus.

He continued to dress in his shepherd's clothes after his consecration as bishop. He continued to graze his flock with his own hands, going himself to bring in the sheep and the lambs, and reading the Scriptures aloud to them as he went. He kept the small offerings that came in for the see in his own house, and gave them out to the poor with his own hand.

When the great Council was summoned to Nicaea, Spyridon came to it in his shepherd's tunic and old worn shoes. The more learned of the Fathers thought him unfit to dispute with the philosophical Arian party who had come in their best robes and their finest dialectic, and asked him to keep silent during the disputations.

But when the Arian philosophers had wearied the Fathers with their arguments, Spyridon rose, took a brick into his hand, made the sign of the Cross over it, and said: There is one God in three Persons, as in this brick there is fire and water and clay, three natures and one substance.

And at his word the brick parted in his hand. The fire shot upward to the ceiling, the water dripped downward to the floor, and the clay remained in his palm. The bishops fell silent; the Arian philosopher rose, and confessed the Faith of Christ, and was received that day into the Church.

A thief broke into Spyridon's sheepfold one night to carry off a ram. He bound the legs of the ram, took it on his shoulders, and tried to leave; but as he turned to the gate, an invisible bond held him fast. He could not move until daybreak, when Spyridon came out and found him still standing in the fold with the ram on his shoulders.

Spyridon, knowing what had happened, said only: Friend, you have stayed up all night and worked hard. Take the ram, that you have not slept in vain. And he loosed the man and the ram, blessed him, and let him go. The man went away and became a Christian.

Spyridon's daughter Irene, who had served the Church in his diocese, had reposed before him. After her death a poor widow came to Spyridon weeping; she had entrusted to Irene, in Irene's lifetime, a valuable ornament for safekeeping, and could not find it in the house, and now Irene was reposed and could not be asked.

Spyridon went to the grave of his daughter and called her by name. From the grave Irene answered, told him where she had hidden the ornament for safekeeping, and was laid down again. The poor widow found the ornament in the place Irene had named, and Spyridon told her to give thanks to God who keeps the bond of love between the living and the reposed.

O Father, Champion of the First Council of Nicaea, and Wonderworker, our Holy Father Spyridon: we have you as our intercessor with the Lord. Cause the dead to speak as the living, and heal lepers by your prayer, and turn aside flooded rivers with the sign of the Cross. Wherefore, sanctified one, intercede with Christ our God to save our souls.