Cenchreae

Cenchreae was the eastern seaport of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf, about seven miles east of the city. Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half on his second missionary journey, planting one of the most spiritually gifted and turbulent congregations in the early church. From Cenchreae he sailed for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila — but first he cut his hair there at Cenchreae, having taken a Nazirite-style vow (Acts 18:18). The town was also home to its own congregation: in Romans 16:1, Paul commends "Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae" to the Roman believers, calling her a benefactor of many including himself. Phoebe almost certainly carried Paul's letter to the Romans on her journey westward — making her the personal courier of the most theologically influential letter in church history. The site has been extensively excavated and revealed warehouses, an apse-shaped sanctuary of Isis, and the harbor moles described by Pausanias.