Venerable Copres of Palestine

Copres of Palestine was a monk of the monastery of Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch in the Judean desert. The synaxarion relates that he was found as an abandoned newborn at the monastery, was raised there by the monks, and remained within its community for the whole of his life. He is commemorated on September 24.

According to the account preserved by the synaxarion, the infant was left during an invasion of the Hagarenes and was discovered by the monks lying upon a dung-hill, called in Greek kopria, from which he received the name Copres. The monks took the child in, fed him with goat's milk, and brought him up in the monastery. In time he accepted the monastic tonsure and embraced the ascetic life of the community.

The tradition records that Copres advanced to a high degree of virtue and received the gift of wonderworking. He is said to have lived to about ninety years of age and to have reposed peacefully. Beyond the circumstances of his discovery and the report of his sanctity and longevity, the surviving account preserves little detail of his individual life.