If you have correctly defined database elements, you must also establish a connection to use UTF-8 encoding. Since Phalcon uses PDO, you can try changing your connection like this:
$di["db"] = function() {
return new \Phalcon\Db\Adapter\Pdo\Mysql(array(
"host" => "localhost",
"username" => "root",
"password" => "1234",
"dbname" => "test",
"options" => array(
PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => 'SET NAMES utf8'
)
));
};
An example from the Phalcon Forum .
, utf8_polish_ci utf8_universal_ci. - .