One of the wonderful things about speaking of all the saints of the Orthodox Church is their great variety. They come in all shapes and sizes, they come in male and female, and they come with such a plethora of amazing gifts that they have given back to the world simply by accepting to cooperate with the Holy Spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ sends to them. Often we are sort of overwhelmed by the great number of saints who had such incredible exploits, particularly those who helped thousands of people spiritually or even those who helped define the faith by their amazing fight against heresies of all kinds.

But then there’s also the quieter ones. One such is Thomas of Maleon, whom we speak of today. Maleon is a place that we are not sure exactly where it is. Some think that it was in the southern part of the Peloponnesus; others believe that it was part of Mytilini, because both of these areas had a certain small mountain that sort of matches the expectations we get from reading about Thomas in his Life. But whichever one it was—and it really doesn’t matter—Thomas is someone who spent his life fighting the unseen warfare, but he didn’t start out like this. In fact, he was quite noted at the very beginning because of his exploits in the army.

He was someone who fought enemies and fought them ferociously, and gained all sorts of notoriety and fame because of this. But eventually, because he was a Christian, he decided that he wanted to fight only for our Lord Jesus Christ, and so enlisted in his army. Whereupon, after this, he spent many years engaged in spiritual battles with the demons, fighting them tooth and nail, not letting them get any hold on him, and by doing so he was also creating a wonderful, wonderful victory for all of us, too, because so many of these saints that spend their lives in the unseen warfare that perhaps we don’t know about or never will hear about are ones that help keep the world at bay and help assuage the tide of evil that afflicts us so badly.

Now, Thomas, after his enlistment into our Lord’s army, also took on as a sort of unofficial patron, St. Elias, and through St. Elias Thomas was granted the ability to be guided at night by a pillar of fire. And it is said that those who were pure and worthy who were around Thomas could actually see this light, but nevertheless there it was. And because of this wonderful battle against the devil and his minions that he was engaged in, he was also given the gift of great wonder-working ability. Whether you were blind, whether you were somehow maimed, whether you were lame—whatever the affliction might be, Thomas was able to cure it; he was able to heal it, and many, many people flocked to him because of this.

Thomas is perhaps but a footnote in the great hagiography of the Orthodox Church, but as no saint is unimportant, even those who are not named—sometimes we only know of their exploits or we only know what happened to them—they are all very much equal in the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives his grace willingly to everyone who will but respond to his call. Thomas did so, and because of this, not only great healings which continue even to this day, but also a great sense of fortitude and strength in the proclamation of the faith of the Orthodox is granted.

He is one who fought the unseen warfare perhaps for those of us who don’t—maybe not because of our own fault, but because of the position that we find ourselves in the world, where we simply cannot devote the time and effort that Thomas did in order to combat these rarefied and horrible creatures. But Thomas was someone who wouldn’t care about any of that. He knew what his duty was, and he followed it to the very end. May we also emulate him in as many ways as we can, exerting efforts in the unseen warfare ourselves in order to combat the evil that we find around us, and thereby making the world a safer, more equitable, and more spiritual place for those who come in contact with us or with our holy Orthodox faith.