On the day after every Great Feast, the Orthodox Church honors the one through whom the Feast is made possible. On the day following the Nativity of the Lord, for example, we celebrate the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos (December 26). On the day after Theophany, we commemorate Saint John the…
The Holy Martyr Aquilina, a native of the Phoenician city of Byblos, suffered under the emperor Diocletian (284-305). Her parents raised her in Christian piety. When the girl was only twelve years old, she persuaded a pagan friend to convert to Christ. One of the servants of the imperial governor…
Saint Tryphillius, Bishop of Leukosia, was born in Constantinople, and he received his education at Berit (Beirut, in Lebanon). He was very intelligent and eloquent. In spite of this, the saint chose as his guide a man neither bookish nor learned, but one of conspicuous holiness: Saint Spyridon of…
Saint Andronikos (Andrónikos), a native of Rostov, began his spiritual life under the guidance of the great luminary Saint Sergius of Radonezh. He was a lover of the spiritual life, so Metropolitan Alexei chose Andronikos to be the Igoumen of the new Monastery of the All-Merciful Savior, which he…
Saint Savva of Moscow succeeded Saint Andronicus as the igumen of the monastery of the Savior, dedicated to the Icon of Christ Not-Made-By Hands (August 16) in 1395. He died in 1410.
The Holy Martyr Antonina suffered during the third century under Diocletian (284-305) in the city of Nicea. They tortured her in various ways: they burned her with fire, they put her on a red-hot plate, they bored into her hands and feet with red-hot rods and they threw her in prison, where she…
Saint Anna and her son Saint John lived in the ninth century. Saint Anna was the daughter of a deacon of the Blachernae church in Constantinople. After the death of her husband, she dressed in men’s clothing and called herself Euthymianus. She and her son Saint John lived in asceticism in one…
Saint James had so much love for Christ, and so little regard for the things of this world, that he sold all of all his possessions, and distributed the money to the poor, keeping none for himself. Unfortunately, he was overcome with pride. He said to himself, “Who knows better than I do,…
Saint Antipater’s life is not to be found in the Synaxaristes. From other sources, we know that he was the Bishop of Bostra in Arabia, and he lived in the second half of the fifth century. He was esteemed highly by his contemporaries. His best known work was a book refuting the doctrines of…
Saint Anthimus of Iberia was one of the most highly educated people of his time. He was fluent in many languages, including Greek, Romanian, Old Slavonic, Arabic, and Turkish and well-versed in theology, literature, and the natural sciences. He was unusually gifted in the fine arts—in…
Today we also commemorate 10,000 Martyrs, beheaded by the sword for Christ. The year of their death is not known.
Today we commemorate the finding of the relics of Saint Nicholas the Deacon at Karyes Monastery on Lesbos on June 13, 1960. In April of 1960 he appeared to three women in the town of Thermi, telling them where his relics were to be found. They hesitated to ask the Metropolitan of Mytilene for…
