The Pie of Saint Fanourios

[Athenaeus]

Today the Greek Orthodox Church, commemorates one of the most popular Saints; Saint Fanourios.

Saint Fanourios became very popular, because his name ( Fanourios) derives from the ancient Greek verb Faino that means reveal...

Saint Fanourios, reveals lost things for you.

But let me take things from scratch.

Saint Fanourios was a young man who had a very immoral mother. He was tortured for his religious beliefs and according to the tradition when was acknowledged as a Saint he is asking people to forgive his mother for her sins.
In the iconography , he is depicted as a young man who is carrying a candle.

People ( among people, I include myself) that if you loose something, if you are searching for a job, if things are really at mess in your life all you have to do is ask Saint Fanourios to reveal you, either the lost object or the solution to your problems.

99% you will find your way and then you have to bake a special pie to thank the Saint for his help. You bring the pie to the church where the priest prays and afterwards you have to give pieces of this pie to people that they are passing by the church, especially to the poor. As they take the piece of the pie they wish " Let God forgive the soul of his mother".

The pie is delicious and I attach the recipe. It's very easy BUT if you want to keep the Greek tradition you have to use the 9 ingredients the order I have them in my recipe.

If you remember I have posted as well the recipe for the Pie that brings Luck in the New Year.
The Pie of Saint Fanourios ( called in Greek fanouropita) is even more popular. If you have an old Greek member in your family, you will make him or her extremely happy.

Needless to say, that my grandmother has made popular those pies in her neighborhood Jerusalem although she was a Jew. "God provides for everybody" used to say and I guess she was right.

The recipe belongs to Mrs. Kornilia ( Cornelia in English) a Christian neighbor of hers who used to live in Thessaloniki-Greece before WWII

Fanouropitta

4 cups of self-rising flour
1 teaspoon of grounded cinnamon
1 cup of sunflower oil
1 cup + 2 table spoons of sugar
2 cups of fresh orange juice
1/2 cup of water
Some grounded lemon zest
1/2/cup of black raisins
1/2/cups of blonde raisins
1/2 cup of walnuts roughly chopped.
Caster sugar

Mix the flour with the cinnamon
Mix in a bowl the oil, sugar, orange juice, water and the lemon zest. Mix well.
Add the flour, the raisins and the walnuts. Mix well.
Grease a medium size pan and sprinkle some flour.
Place the mixture in the pan
Bake the pie in a medium oven for 45 min or more. When it gets cold wrinkle on the top some caster sugar.

[Nicko]

I thought my aunt had told me all of the saint stories but that is one I have not heard. Thank you for sharing that it is very interesting and I wonder where I could find reading on other Greek saints.

I will try the recipe, I am always losing things (generally my mind).

[Athenaeus]

I didn't reply at once because I wanted to check.
The most useful tool is the site of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

In the calendar you can click on the day and get some basic info.

http://www.goarch.org/en/Chapel/calendar.asp