Lives of the Saints

Saint Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium

Saint Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium

Saint Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium, lived during the eighth century. He was elected as bishop by the inhabitants of Parium, who venerated the saint as a true pastor of the flock of Christ. When the Iconoclast heresy broke out, Saint Basil resolutely came out on the side of icon veneration…

Hieromartyr Zeno, Bishop of Verona

Hieromartyr Zeno, Bishop of Verona

Saint Zeno, Bishop of Verona, was born a Greek and came from Syria. In his youth he became a monk and devoted himself to the study of Holy Scripture. Visiting several monasteries, the saint came to the city of Verona and settled there. The people chose him as bishop of the city. The emperors…

Saint Isaac the Syrian, Abbot of Spoleto

Saint Isaac the Syrian, Abbot of Spoleto

Saint Isaac the Syrian lived during the mid-sixth century. He came to the Italian city of Spoleto from Syria. The saint asked permission of the church wardens to remain in the temple, and he prayed in it for two and a half days. One of the church wardens began to reproach him with hypocrisy and…

Monastic Martyrs Menas, David, and John, of Palestine

The Monk Martyrs Menas, David and John lived in Palestine. They were martyred in the seventh century by Arabs, who shot them through with arrows (+ post 636, when Jerusalem was captured by the Arabs).

Venerable Anthusa of Constantinople

Venerable Anthusa of Constantinople

The holy princess Anthusa of Constantinople was the daughter of the Iconoclast emperor Constantine Copronymos (reigned 741-775) and his third wife Eudokia. She and her twin brother, the future emperor Leo the Khazar (775-780), were born on January 25, 750. Constantine had tortured the holy Abbess…

Venerable Athanasia, Abbess of Aegina

Venerable Athanasia, Abbess of Aegina

Saint Athanasia was abbess of a monastery on the island of Aegina in the ninth century. She was born into a pious Christian family, and her parents were named Nicetas and Marina. Already at seven years of age the girl studied the Psalter, which she read constantly and with feeling. Once, while…

Venerable Acacius the Younger of Mount Athos

Venerable Acacius the Younger of Mount Athos

Saint Acacius the New was a monk at the Holy Trinity monastery of Saint Dionysius of Olympus (January 24) at Zagora. After visiting several monasteries on Mount Athos, the saint on the advice of his father-confessor, Father Galacteon, settled in the skete monastery of Saint Maximus the Hut-Burner…

Murom Icon of the Mother of God

Murom Icon of the Mother of God

This icon was brought from Kiev to Murom by the Holy Prince Constantine of Murom (May 21) early in the XII century. For a long time, but quite unsuccessfully, Saint Constantine tried to attract the pagan inhabitants of the Murom principality to Christianity. His counsels met with no sympathy;…

Belynich Icon of the Mother of God

Belynich Icon of the Mother of God

The Belynich Icon of the Mother of God initially was in one of the Orthodox churches of the Mogilev district. After the emergence of the Unia (1596) the icon passed into the hands of the Catholics and was placed in a church of the Belynich Catholic monastery, founded in 1622-1624 by the hetman of…

Transfer of the Holy Zone of Theotokos to Constantinople

The journey was made from the diocese of Zḗla (in Cappadocia) to Constantinople in the year 942, when the Emperors were Constantine and Romanos, the Porphyrogénnētoi.1 The Zone (Sash) was then placed in the Holy Soros2 of Chalkopratia on April 12. 1 Born in the purple. This refers to a room…