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Orthodox Saints Book
of Celtic Saints and All Saints
English Flowers of Orthodoxy 18
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY – MULTILINGUAL ORTHODOXY – EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH – ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ – SIMBAHANG ORTODOKSO NG SILANGAN – 东正教在中国 – ORTODOXIA – 日本正教会 – ORTODOSSIA – อีสเทิร์นออร์ทอดอกซ์ – ORTHODOXIE – 동방 정교회 – PRAWOSŁAWIE – ORTHODOXE KERK - නැගෙනහිර ඕර්තඩොක්ස් සභාව – СРЦЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНО – BISERICA ORTODOXĂ – GEREJA ORTODOKS – ORTODOKSI – ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ – ORTODOKSE KIRKE – CHÍNH THỐNG GIÁO ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG – EAGLAIS CHEARTCHREIDMHEACH – ՈՒՂՂԱՓԱՌ ԵԿԵՂԵՑԻՆ / Abel-Tasos Gkiouzelis - https://gkiouzelisabeltasos.blogspot.com - Email: gkiouz.abel@gmail.com - Feel free to email me...!
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◦.(¯`:☼:´¯)
..✿.(.^.)•.¸¸.•`•.¸¸✿
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Sources:
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The Saints of Christ are always alive and near to us like Prophet Moses in Luke 9:30.
Prophet Moses died (Deuteronomy 34:5-8) but he is alive and appeared in glorious splendor:
"Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus" (Luke 9:30).
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St. Aidan Bishop of Ferns, England, from Ireland
31 January
Born in Connaught, Ireland; died 626.
Give as if every pasture in the mountains of Ireland belonged to you. --Saint Aidan.
The Irish Saint Aidan loved animals. His fellow Irishmen were fond of hunting. Aidan so protected them that his emblem in art is a stag. One day as he sat reading in Connaught, a desperate stag took refuge with him in the hope of escaping pursuing hounds. Aidan by a miracle made the stag invisible, and the hounds ran off.
There were several Irish saints named Aidan but this one seems to have been the most important. As a youth he spent some time in Leinster but, desirous of becoming learned in holy Scripture, Aidan went to Wales to study under Saint David (Dewi; f.d. March 1) at Menevia in Pembrokeshire for several years. His only difference from his fellow monks is that he brought his own beer from his native land.
The inspiration of Saint David caused him to return to Ireland with several other monks to built his own monastery at Ferns, County Wexford, on land given to him by Prince Brandrub (Brandubh) of Leinster together with the banquet halls and champions' quarters of the royal seat of Fearna. He also founded monasteries at Drumlane and Rossinver, which disputed Ferns' claim to his burial site. In addition to monasteries, Aidan is credited with founding about 30 churches in Ireland. One source claims that Aidan became the first bishop of Ferns (which is not that unlikely because many abbots were treated as bishops during the period), which displaced Sletty of Fiach as the bishop's seat.
Later in life he returned to Saint David's for a time, and it is said that Saint David died in the arms of Aidan. Welsh tradition maintains that Aidan succeeded David as abbot of Menevia, and on that basis Wales later claimed jurisdiction over Ferns because a Welsh abbot founded it. In fact, in Wales they regard Aidan as a native and provide him with a genealogy that includes Welsh nobility. There his great reputation for charity still survives, for he taught his monks to give their last bits of food to those in need.
The written "vitae" of Saint Aidan are composed mostly of miracles attributed to him. His is attributed with astonishing feats of austerity, such as fasting on barley bread and water for seven years, as well as reciting 500 Psalms daily. An odd tale is related in another. Some spurious beggars hid their clothes, donned rags, and then begged for alms. Knowing what they had done, Aidan gave their clothes to the poor and sent the impostors away with neither their clothing nor alms.
One story reports that he bequeathed his staff, bell (Bell of Saint Mogue), and reliquary to his three monasteries of Ferns, Drumlane, and Rossinver. All have survived the fates of time. The staff can be found in the National Museum in Dublin; the other two in the Library of Armagh cathedral. The bell had been in the hereditary keepership of the MacGoverns in Templeport, County Cavan. Another of his personal belongings, the Breac Moedoc, is in the National Museum. This stamped leather satchel and shrine that encased the relics of Saint Laserian of Leighlin (f.d. April 18) was brought from Rome and given to Aidan, who placed it in the church of Drumlane. A bronze reliquary that contained his remains in the 11th century is preserved in Dublin. In addition to having a cultus in Ireland and Wales, Saint Aidan was venerated in Scotland in the 12th century.
He is represented in art by a stag because of the story related above.
Another Life:
This saint illustrates the close co-operation that existed between the Celtic churches in Ireland and Wales. He was the greatly loved disciple of S. David for many years and during that time he was usually known by his baptismal name of Aedan but later in Ireland, where he founded the famous abbey at Ferns in County Wexford, he was given the prefix of endearment making his name Maedoc that was usually pronounced Mogue. It was his parents Sedua and Eithne, from the ancient families of the O'Neils and O'Briens, who named him Aedan and possibly his foster parents that started calling him "My little Hugh", Mo-Aidh-og, which gives us Maedoc. His parents had been childless for some time and had prayed frequently for an heir. One night a star was seen to descend upon both of them and a soothsayer told them they would have a wonderful son, full of God's grace. He was born on Brackly, an island in Templeport Lake in County Cavan, since called St Mogue's Island.
After his initial education he went to S. David's monastery at Menevia (Wales) to be trained and the stories about him show him to have been an ardent scholar, impetuous but with a deep reverence and obedience to his mentor. One day as he was reading a precious book out in the open he was called upon to run an errand and he immediately ran off leaving the book on the ground. There was a heavy deluge of rain and, although the book was miraculously unharmed, David finding him on the sea shore ordered him to prostrate himself in penitence for his carelessness. S. David returned to the monastery and forgot about the incident until at the evening office he saw that Aedan was not with his brethren. They all ran down to the beach and drew him from the waves that were submerging the still prostrate penitent.
The particular affection that David had for his Irish student did not endear him to all the community and the steward of the abbey persuaded one of the monks to engineer his death and make it look like an accident. David was putting on his sandals when he had a vision of the young man in danger and he ran to the forest with only one foot shod just in time to see the would-be assassin with his arms upraised about to deliver the death blow with an axe. By spiritual power the saintly abbot transfixed the monk who was left with his arms still up as Aedan ran towards his master escorted as S. David saw with innumerable troops of angels.
When the time came for him to return to his own country Mogue, as we must now call him, discovered he had forgotten to bring with him a bell which had been David's parting gift to him. He needed the bell for the monastery he was building at Ferns and he sent one of his monks to fetch it. S. David however sent the monk back empty-handed, entrusting the bell to a swift flying angel who was also able to advise him about a soul-friend, or confessor, recommending S. Molua.
Mogue was responsible for other foundations, notably Clonagh in County Limerick, but it was his monastery at Ferns in County Wexford that was most dear to him and in his thoughts when absent from it. One day when he was a hundred miles distant he saw one of the monks ploughing with oxen near Ferns and falling in front of the plough. The abbot raised his hand, the oxen immediately halted and the monk was saved from injury.
Only the wells remain of his foundations but after his death his bones were enshrined in a richly engraved and embossed casket called Breac M'Aodhog which is preserved, with its leather satchel, in the National Museum in Dublin. His day in the Irish Calendars is January 31st.
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Saint Makarios of Pisma and Kostroma, Russia
January 10
On January 10, the Feast Day of Saint Paul of Obnora (or Komel), the Church also commemorates one of his friends and companions: Saint Makarios of Pisma. There is no information about when the two hermits became acquainted. According to ancient tradition, Saint Paul met Saint Makarios when he was visiting various monasteries before he settled in the Komel forest on the Obnora River, that is, before 1414.
Tradition says that Saint Makarios was born in the village of Danilovo, located on the left bank of the Pisma River, twelve versts from the hermitage, where the noble Pismensky family revered Saint Makarios as one of its relatives. Saint Makarios received his first monastic training from Saint Sergius at Holy Trinity Monastery, and from there he returned to his homeland and settled in a dense forest near the Pisma River, since he loved solitude. This place has retained the name of the old Makariev Hermitage. Disciples began to gather around him, and there were many others who wished to live near him, Saint Makarios founded a small monastery a mile away from his secluded cell, and built a wooden church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Later, the righteous one was buried near this church.
While establishing his own monastery, Saint Paul did not forget about his friend; and for his part, Saint Makarios did not regard the hermitage he had founded in the Pisma wilderness as separate from Saint Paul's Monastery. Like-minded in their understanding of human life, and the benefits of solitude and silence, both hermits grew closer together; thus the monasteries they founded were perhaps the beginning of monastic life in the region. But the communities of these spiritual friends had different fates: Obnora Monastery grew crowded, but Pisma Monastery remained a small hermitage. However, the bond between them was never broken.
The charters of Tsars Ivan the Terrible (1566) and Michael (1625) describe the Makariev Hermitage by the Shachebal mill as belonging to the Saint Paul of Obnora Monastery.
In an inventory of the Saint Paul of Obnora Monastery dating from 1683, an icon of Saint Makarios and Saint Paul is mentioned, thus the ascetic's local veneration had already begun at that time. Concerning the Monastery itself it is stated in the inventory: "Saint Paul's Monastery is the same as the Monastery of Makariev Hermitage in the Kostroma district, by the Shachebalsky mill on the Pisma River, and in the church of the Transfiguration of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ is a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul, the wonderworker of Obnora, with a domed roof. In the same chapel the tomb of Saint Makarios is covered with a black cloth, over the middle of which a cross is suspended."
The following miracle occurred at the grave of Saint Makarios. At the end of the XVIII century, the church burnt down, and a wooden structure was set up over the Saint's grave; and in the place where this wooden structure was located, not only did they fail to notice the burning wood and coals, but the ashes as well; and the whole area was covered with an extraordinary dew. After the fire, a curious person wanted to open the tomb to see what was there, and he was punished with blindness for his temerity.
At present, the Saint's relics rest beneath the floor. On the tomb is an icon of Saint Makarios, and his staff lies on top of the cloth. A prayer to the Saint, dating from 1750, has been preserved as well.
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St. Tudy, Virgin in Wales
30 January
5th century. One of many saintly daughters of Brychan of Brecknock, Wales. Saint Tudy left her name to Llandybie in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
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St. Voloc (Walloch), Missionary Bishop in Scotland, from Ireland
29 January
Died c. 724. Saint Voloc was an Irish missionary bishop who laboured in Scotland.
The higher reaches of the Don valley have been inhabited since Bronze Age times as far west as Corgarff. Lower down, an offshoot of the Don, the waters of the Buchat, have created a fine and fertile glen to the north of the ancient holy mountain of Strathdon - Ben Newe.
Saint Walloch was a celtic missionary whose principal church was at Logie-in-Mar amongst the pictish settlements of what became known as Cro-mar. Far to the north of Glenbuchat we see a solitary glimpse of the presence of the Celtic church at Kilvalauche, somewhere in the forest of Badeneoin (NJ 333190), which is mentioned in a charter of 1507.1 This name can hardly mean anything else than the church of St Walloch. From the same document we learn that Culbalauche, St Walloch's retreat, was in the neighbourhood. Prior to 1473 the Chapel of Glenbuchat was a dependancy of Logie-Mar, the link with St Walloch thus being given the strongest argument conceivable in its favour. Incidentally, confirmation seems to be obtained from a statement2 that St Walloch, in addition to his other church foundations, at Dunmeth in Glass and at Balvenie, had a church site in Strathdon.
We have no trustworthy guidance as to the date of St Walloch's labours. The Aberdeen Breviary places him in the fifth century, while Camerarius fixes his death in the year 733. In the Breviary we are given an interesting account of St Walloch's mode of life, coupled with a highly unflattering picture of the folk he strove to convert:-
He preferred a poor little house, woven together of reeds and wattles, to a royal palace. In this he led a life of poverty and humility, on all sides shunning the dignities of the world, that he might achieve to himself a higher reward in heaven. But the race whom he preferred to convert to the faith of Christ, and whom actually by his preaching and exhortation he did convert, no one would hesitate to describe as fierce, untamed, void of decency of manners and virtue, and incapable of easily listening to the word of truth, and their conversation was rather that of the brutes that perish than of men.
St Walloch is said to have been among the last of the missionaries to be sent to the north-east from St Ninian's centre at Whithorn (Candida Cassa). Though familiarly called "Walloch the foreigner", his origin and nationality are actually unknown. At his foundation at Logie-in-Mar there stands, at the gate and just outside the churchyard, a rough monolith about 5' 6" tall, known as Walloch's Stone. "Walloch's Fair" was a popular event in the district and was held on his Feast Day - 29th January.
One source3 gives us a very different history saying that the saint whose name appears in a corrupted form as Wolok, latinised Volocus, is believed to be Faelchu, 13th abbot of Hy (Iona) from 716 till 724. He sprang from the race of Conall Gulban, the ancestor of the famous lineage of Cenel Conaill and several of the saints of Ireland including St Columba himself. Born in 664, Faelchu was seventy-three when, on Saturday, 29th August, he was called to the chair once occupied by St Columba. Indeed, it has been thought that Fedlimid, 14th abbot of Hy (722-?), was an assistant abbot appointed to take care of business because of Faelchu's great age.
Walla Kirk (Walloch's Church), as the church of Dunmeth in Glass was called, stood in its burying-ground on the bank of the Deveron, but is now represented only by some mounds. It was held in superstitious regard even in post-reformation times for in 1648 the ministers of Strathbogie ordanit to censure all superstitione at Wallak Kirk. About a hundred yards east of the church once flowed St Wallach's Well. On its margin lay a stone with a hollow in it, into which pins were dropped by health-seekers as offerings to the saint. As the result of agricultural improvements the spring has been drained, and the water gushes out further down the bank, where the stone now lies unheeded. In the neighbourhood of the graveyard, where a foot-bridge spans the Deveron, is Wallach Pot, a pool in the river said to be about fourteen feet deep. Fully a quarter of a mile further along the river bank is a long, trough-like hollow in the rock, known a St Wallach's Bath. Sickly children used to be dipped in its water. Pieces of their clothing and also coins were thrown into the bath as offerings. If there is any truth in the tradition that St Wallach's Hermitage stood on a neighbouring mound, he must, it is to be presumed, have arrived a number of years before he became abbot of Hy.
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Theosebia the Deaconess, sister of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa
January 10
Saint Theosebia the Deaconess was the sister of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory, afterwards Bishop of Nyssa , and Peter, Bishop of Sebaste. She was a virgin and served the Holy Church as a deaconess, caring for the sick, distributing food to vagrants, raising orphans and preparing women for holy Baptism.
When her brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, was in exile for three years, Saint Theosebia was with him and she shared in all the tribulations of a life of wandering. Saint Theosebia died in 385, and Saint Gregory the Theologian praised her in a eulogy.
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St. Triphina the widow in Brittany, France
29 January
6th century, feast may be July 5. Saint Triphina was the mother of the infant-martyr Saint Tremorus (f.d. November 7). She passed the later years of her life in a convent in Brittany, France.
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St. Dallan Forghaill (of Cluain Dallain), Martyr in Ireland
29 January
Born in Connaught, Ireland; died 598. Dallan, a kinsman of Saint Aidan of Ferns (f.d. January 31) and a renowned scholar in his own right. The intensity of his study strained his eyes to the point where he became blind.
In 575, Dallan was the Chief Bard of Ireland, a position second only to the king in honour. When the king of Ireland, Aedh MacAinmire, called upon the Assembly of Drumceat to abolish the bardic guild and its privileges, Saint Columba (f.d. June 9) successfully argued that the bards were necessary to preserve the history of the nation and that it would be prudent to punish abusive bards rather than destroy the order.
In recognition of Columba's defence of the bards, Saint Dallan wrote a panegyric, "Amra Choluim Kille" or "Eulogy of Columba". To account for its obscure and intentionally difficult language, legend tells us that in his humility Columba would only permit it to be written if it were incomprehensible to the Irish. Saint Dallan also wrote the "Eulogy of Senan".
Today's saint reorganised and reformed the Bardic Order and initiated a strictly supervised school system for it that encouraged the cultivation of the Gaelic language and preservation of its literature. The order itself was active until 1738 when Turlough O'Carolan, the last of the great Irish bards and composer of the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner," died. Until that time, the bards participated in every major Irish celebration.
He is venerated as a martyr because he was murdered at Inis-coel (Inniskeel) by pirates who broke into the monastery.
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Saint Antipas of Valaam Monastery, Russia
January 10
Saint Antipas was born in Moldavia, Romania in 1816. His father was a deacon in the village church, and his mother ended her life in a women’s monastery as a schemanun.
Saint Antipas came to Valaam Monastery from Mt Athos on November 6, 1865. He spent the rest of his life in the skete at Valaam, living like a hermit.
Blessed with the gift of clairvoyance, Saint Antipas fell asleep in the Lord on January 10, 1882.
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St. Gildas the Wise, Abbot Bishop and hermit in a tiny island in Breitin.
29 January
Born c. 520; died c. 570 (some scholars believe he may have died as early as 554).
Gildas may have been born in the lower valley of Clydeside in Scotland. He is often called "Badonicus" because he was born in the year the Britons defeated the Saxons at Bath. His father was of the ruling family of a small kingdom on the borders of Northumbria with its capital at Dumbarton but he was sent from the banks of the Clyde to the monastery of Llaniltut or Llantwit. in southern Wales, where he was trained by Saint Illtyd (f.d. November 6) together with Saint Samson (f.d. July 28) and Saint Paul Aurelian (f.d. March 12), though he was much younger. Well-known Irish monks, including Saint Finnian (f.d. December 12), became his disciples. He made a pilgrimage to Ireland to consult with his contemporary saints of that land and wrote letters to far-off monasteries. He seems to have had considerable influence on the development of the Irish church.
When Gildas graduated from Llantwit he went to Ireland to continue his studies, moving from one monastic centre to another. Possibly he was ordained priest in Ireland and went back to the North of Britain, teaching and preaching in the land of his nativity. The fame of his successful ministry made Ainmeric, a King in Ireland, invite him back to restore the discipline and ordered Liturgy in the monasteries and he taught for a time in the School of Armagh.
On returning to Britain, he assisted S. Cadoc at Llancarven and accompanied him when he went to Brittany, or Armorica as it was called at that time. Gildas also went on pilgrimage to Rome and there is a story that he visited Cadoc on the way. He brought with him a leather pouch and when he opened it he produced a bell, shaped like a square cap. The bell was made of beaten metal, a mixture of silver and copper, and had a very sweet tone so that Cadoc desired it for the monastery he was building at that time. Gildas however told him that it was destined for St Peter's at Rome but when he presented it to the Pope on his arrival in the Holy City, the bell gave no sound at all. On his way back he called on Cadoc again and gave him the bell which now sounded as sweet as ever. From this incident Gildas learnt that his labours should be among his own people.
He is best remembered in Britain for his history of the church in that land from the departure of the Romans to the invasion of the Saxons. It was probably written at Glastonbury about 540 and is entitled De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, The Ruin of Britain, which he says came upon the British through the decadence of their rulers and clergy. The work laid bare and severely criticised the lives of Britain's rulers and clerics, blaming their moral laxity for the triumph of the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Although the fierceness of its rhetorical invectives has been criticised the wide scriptural scholarship that it reveals is uncontested. It also shows that he was knowledgeable about Virgil and Ignatius (f.d. October 17). This work was cited by Saint Bede (f.d. May 26).
He is considered to be the first English historian. He lived as a hermit for some time on Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel, where he copied a missal for Saint Cadoc (f.d. September 25) and may have written De excidio. Gildas, upon returning from his pilgrimage to Rome, founded a monastery on an island near Rhuys (Rhuis or Morbihan) in Brittany, which became the centre of his veneration. Though he lived for a time on a tiny island in Morbihan Bay, he gathered disciples around him and does not seem to have cut himself off entirely from the world; he did travel to other places in Brittany.
The De excidio, which very influential in the early Middle Ages, may not have been written entirely by Gildas. Some of it may have been added shortly after his time. The work serves as an example of the classical and early Christian literature that was then available in England. Gilda's writings were used by Wulfstan (f.d. January 19), archbishop of York, in the 11th century in his "Sermon of the Wolf" to the English people during the disordered reign of Ethelred the Unready.
He did spend some time as a hermit on the island of Flatholm in the Bristol Channel but he eventually moved to Brittany where he founded a monastery at a place which bears his name St Gildas-de-Rhuys which according to Peter Abelard who was later abbot there was not a very salubrious spot. His tomb is behind the altar in the present church and there are relics in the Sacristy.
Some early Irish martyrologies commemorate his feast as does the Leofric Missal (c. 1050) and Anglo-Saxon calendars of the 9th through 11th centuries.
He is portrayed in art with a bell near him.
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Saint Theophan the Recluse, Bishop of Tambov, Russia
January 10
George Govorov, the future Saint Theophan, was born on January 10, 1815 in the village of Chernavsk in the Orlov province where his father was a priest.
At first, George attended a primary school at Liven, then a military school. From 1837-1841 he studied at the Kiev Theological Academy, and probably visited the Monastery of the Caves several times. In these surroundings, it was not surprising that he received the monastic tonsure while he was still a student. After graduation Hieromonk Theophan was appointed rector of Kiev’s church schools, and later became rector of the seminary in Novgorod. Before he retired from teaching, Father Theophan served as a professor and Assistant Inspector at the Petersburg Academy.
Saint Theophan was not completely happy with academic work, so he asked to be relieved of his duties. He was assigned to be a member of the Russian Mission in Jerusalem. After being raised to the rank of Archimandrite, he became Rector of Olnets Seminary. Soon he was assigned as the chief priest of the embassy church in Constantinople. Saint Theophan was eventually recalled to Russia to become rector of the Petersburg Academy, and supervisor of religious education in the capital’s secular schools.
On May 9, 1859 Saint Theophan was consecrated as Bishop of Tambov, where he established a diocesan school for girls. During his time in Tambov he came to love the secluded Vysha Monastery in his diocese. In 1863 he was transferred to Vladimir and remained there for three years. He also established a diocesan school for girls at Vladimir.
The holy bishop visited parishes throughout his diocese serving, preaching, restoring churches, and sharing the joys and sorrows of his flock. It was very difficult for Bishop Theophan to live in the world and become involved with vain worldly disputes. Many abused his trust, but he could not bring himself to chastise anyone. Instead, he left such unpleasant tasks to the Archpriest of his cathedral.
He was present at the uncovering of the relics of Saint Tikhon of in 1861, and this made a tremendous impression on him, for he had much in common with that saint. He had loved Saint Tikhon from early childhood, and always spoke about him with great enthusiasm. When Saint Tikhon was glorified as a saint on August 13, Bishop Theophan’s joy knew no bounds.
In 1866 his request to be relieved of his duties as Bishop of Vladimir was granted. He was appointed as Superior of the Vysha Monastery, but soon resigned from that position. He was permitted to live there and to celebrate services whenever he wished. He also received a pension of 1000 rubles.
As he prepared to leave his diocese, he wished to focus on his own salvation, and to concentrate on undisturbed communion with God. On July 24, 1866 he bade his diocese farewell, leaving the world for a life of reclusion, and to devote himself to writing spiritual books. Through these books, Saint Theophan has become the spiritual benefector of all Orthodox Christians. Although he sought the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33), a reputation as a writer of great significance for the whole world was also added to him.
Bishop Theophan wrote many books, but received no profits from their sale. He tried to keep them as inexpensive as possible, and they quickly sold out. He wrote about topics which others before him had not fully treated, such as how to live a Christian life, how to overcome sinful habits, and how to avoid despair. He tried to explain the steps of spiritual perfection systematically, as one who had himself gone through these various steps. Some of his books include The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It, The Path to Salvation, and Letters on the Spiritual Life. He also translated the Philokalia in five volumes, and The Sermons of Saint Simeon the New Theologian.
For the first six years in the monastery, Bishop Theophan attended all the services, including the early Liturgy. He stood still in church with his eyes closed so that he would not be distracted. He often celebrated Liturgy on Sundays and Feast Days.
Beginning in 1872, he cut off all relationships with people (except for his confessor) and no longer left his cell to attend church. He built a small chapel in his quarters and dedicated it to the Lord’s Baptism. For ten years he served there on Sundays and Feast Days. For the last eleven years of his life he served every day by himself. Sometimes he would sing, and sometimes he kept completely silent.
Whenever anyone visited him on business, Bishop Theophan would reply with as few words as possible, then immerse himself in prayer. If anyone sent him money, he would distribute it to the poor, keeping only a small portion to purchase books.
Whenever he was not occupied with writing or praying, the reclusive bishop worked at carpentry or painting icons. He received from twenty to forty letters each day, and he answered all of them. He was able to discern each writer’s spiritual condition, then give detailed answers to the questions of those who were struggling for the salvation of their souls.
His eyesight deteriorated in his latter years, but he did not curtail his work because of it. In the evening, his cell attendant would prepare everything for the bishop to serve Liturgy the next morning. After finishing the Liturgy, Bishop Theophan would knock on the wall to signal the cell attendant to serve him tea. On days when there was no fasting, he would eat lunch at 1:00 P.M. This consisted of one egg and a glass of milk. At four o’clock he would have some tea, and then no more food that day.
Bishop Theophan began to get weaker at the beginning of 1894. He was still writing on the afternoon of January 6, but when the cell attendant came to check on him at 4:30 he found that the bishop had departed to the Lord.
Saint Theophan’s body lay in the small church in his cell for three days, then three more days in the cathedral. There was no trace of corruption, however. He was laid to rest in the Kazan church of the Vysha Monastery.
Several of Saint Theophan’s books have been translated into English, and are reliable spiritual guides for Orthodox Christians of today. Saint Theophan’s gift was the ability to present the wisdom of the Fathers in terms which modern people can understand. Since he lived close to our own time, many readers find his books “more approachable” than the earlier patristic literature. He treats the life of the soul and the life of the body as a unified whole, not as two separate elements, and reveals to people the path of salvation.
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Saints Brigid and Maura, Martyrs in Picardy, France, from Scotland
28 January
Daughters of a Scottish Chieftain, Martyrs in Picardy on the Way to Rome - possibly the same as Maura and Baya on November 2.
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St. Manchan of Lemonaghan, Ireland (+664)
24 January
St. Manchan lived in Leamonaghan, it is about two kilometres from Pollagh. St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise gave him some land and he formed a monastery in the year 645 AD. Nothing now remains but the ruins and the surrounding graveyard. The foundations of the original buildings may still be traced but the larger ruins are those of a church built at a later date.
About 500m from the monastery is a little stone house which Monchan built for his mother Mella. This place is known locally as Kell and the ruins of the house can still be visited today. It is said that one day the saint was thirsty and there was no water at the monastery. He struck a rock and a spring well bubbled up, it is now known as St. Manahan's well. It is visited by people from all around especially on January 24 each year. It is claimed that many people have been cured of diseases after visiting the well.
There are many stories about the saint. One of the most famous of them explains why the people of Lemonaghan will not sell milk. St. Manchan had a cow that used to give milk to the whole country side for which there was no charge. The cow became famous and the neighbouring people of Kill-Managhan got jealous and stole his cow. When St. Manchan eventually found his cow it was dead, he struck it with a stick and the cow came back to life and returned to supplying milk.
St. Manchan's shrine was made in 1130 AD in Clonmacnoise, it contains some of his bones including the femur. On the shrine are placed brass figures, in 1838 it was placed in Boher church. It is the largest shrine of its kind in existence today. The guardians of the shrine through the centuries are the Mooney family (my ancestors!)
St Manchan's Shrine is preserved in Boher church, near-by. This shrine is the largest and most magnificent ancient reliquary in Ireland and was made at Clonmacnois about AD 1130. It is a gabled box of yew wood with gilt, bronze, and enamelled fittings. It still contains the relics of the saint
St. Manchan lived in Lemonaghan for 19 years. During this time he looked after the spiritual needs of the locality. He waas known for his kindness and generosity, his wisdom and his knowledge of sacred scripture.
In 664 AD he became ill and was struck down by the yellow plague a disease which desolated Ireland at the time. He died and wad buried locally. After his death the place became known as 'Liath Manchan', which means Manchan's grey land.
MET. Κ.
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Saints Theodosius the Great, the Cenobiarch, in Palestine
January 11
Saint Theodosius the Great lived during the fifth-sixth centuries, and was the founder of cenobitic monasticism. He was born in Cappadocia of pious parents. Endowed with a splendid voice, he zealously toiled at church reading and singing. Saint Theodosius prayed fervently that the Lord would guide him on the way to salvation. In his early years he visited the Holy Land and met with Saint Simeon the Stylite (September 1), who blessed him and predicted future pastoral service for him.
Yearning for the solitary life, Saint Theodosius settled in Palestine into a desolate cave, in which, according to Tradition, the three Magi had spent the night, having come to worship the Savior after His Nativity. He lived there for thirty years in great abstinence and unceasing prayer. People flocked to the ascetic, wishing to live under his guidance. When the cave could no longer hold all the monks, Saint Theodosius prayed that the Lord Himself would indicate a place for the monks. Taking a censer with cold charcoal and incense, the monk started walking into the desert.
At a certain spot the charcoal ignited by itself and the incense smoke began to rise. Here the monk established the first cenobitic monastery, or Lavra (meaning “broad” or “populous”). Soon the Lavra of Saint Theodosius became renowned, and up to 700 monks gathered at it. According to the final testament of Saint Theodosius, the Lavra rendered service to neighbor, giving aid to the poor and providing shelter for wanderers.
Saint Theodosius was extremely compassionate. Once, when there was a famine in Palestine and a multitude of people gathered at the monastery, the monk gave orders to allow everyone into the monastery enclosure. His disciples were annoyed, knowing that the monastery did not have the means to feed all those who had come. But when they went into the bakery, they saw that through the prayers of the abba, it was filled with bread. This miracle was repeated every time Saint Theodosius wanted to help the destitute.
At the monastery, Saint Theodosius built a home for taking in strangers, separate infirmaries for monks and laymen, and also a shelter for the dying. Seeing that people from various lands gathered at the Lavra, the saint arranged for services in the various languages: Greek, Georgian and Armenian. All gathered to receive the Holy Mysteries in the large church, where divine services were chanted in Greek.
During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius (491-518) there arose the heresy of Eutychius and Severus, which recognized neither the sacraments nor the clergy. The emperor accepted the false teaching, and the Orthodox began to suffer persecution. Saint Theodosius stood firmly in defense of Orthodoxy and wrote a letter to the emperor on behalf of the monks, in which they denounced him and refuted the heresy with the teachings of the Ecumenical Councils. He affirmed moreover, that the desert-dwellers and monks would firmly support the Orthodox teaching. The emperor showed restraint for a short while, but then he renewed his persecution of the Orthodox. The holy Elder then showed great zeal for the truth. Leaving the monastery, he came to Jerusalem and in the church, he stood at the high place and cried out for all to hear: “Whoever does not honor the four Ecumenical Councils, let him be anathema!” For this bold deed the monk was sent to prison, but soon returned after the death of the emperor.
Saint Theodosius accomplished many healings and other miracles during his life, coming to the aid of the needy. Through his prayers he once destroyed the locusts devastating the fields in Palestine. Also by his intercession, soldiers were saved from death, and he also saved those perishing in shipwrecks and those lost in the desert.
Once, the saint gave orders to strike the semandron (a piece of wood hit with a mallet), so that the brethren would gather at prayer. He told them, “The wrath of God draws near the East.” After several days it became known that a strong earthquake had destroyed the city of Antioch at the very hour when the saint had summoned the brethren to prayer.
Before his death, Saint Theodosius summoned to him three beloved bishops and revealed to them that he would soon depart to the Lord. After three days, he died at the age of 105. The saint’s body was buried with reverence in the cave in which he lived at the beginning of his ascetic deeds.
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St. Branwallader Bishop of Jersey Island, British Isles
19 January
6th century (?); in Cornwall he has feast days on February 9 and June 6; January 19 may be the day of the translation of his relics. Saint Branwallader was a Celtic or Welsh monk, who is said to have been a bishop in Jersey. It is believed that Branwallader worked with Saint Samson (f.d. July 28) in Cornwall and the Channel Islands, where he is remembered at Jersey in St. Brelade. He may also have travelled with Samson to Brittany in northern France. In the Exeter martyrology, Branwallader is described a the son of the Cornish king, Kenen.
King Athelstan, who founded Milton Abbey in Dorset, obtained some of the saint's relics (an arm or head) from Breton clerics fleeing Northmen and translated them to Milton Abbey in 935. William Worcestre claimed that the body itself was at Branston, Devon, and Leland referred to a chapel of St. Breward near Seaton.
The cultus of Saint Branwallader has been strong at least from the 10th century, when his name could be found in litanies. His feast was kept at Winchester, Exeter, and Cornwall. In Brittany, he has sometimes been confused with Saint Brendan (f.d. May 16) and Saint Brannock (f.d. January 7).
Κ.
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Saint Michael the Fool-for-Christ of the Klops Monastery, Novgorod, Russia
January 11
Blessed Michael of Klops was of noble lineage, and he was a relative of Great Prince Demetrius of the Don (1363-1389). He took upon himself the exploit of foolishness for Christ to avoid the praise of men. Leaving Moscow dressed in rags, he arrived at the Klops monastery, near Novgorod.
No one knew how he got into the locked cell of the hieromonk Macarius, who was going round the cell censing during the Ninth Ode of the Canon. A man in monastic garb sat there beneath a candle, copying out the Acts of the Holy Apostles. After the end of Matins the igumen came with some of the brethren and asked the stranger who he was, and what his name was. But he responded only by repeating the questions, and did not reveal his origin.
In church the stranger sang in the choir and read the Epistle, and he also read the Lives of the Saints at meals. All who listened were moved by the beauty and spirituality of his reading. On the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Klops monastery was visited by Prince Constantine Dimitrievich (son of Great Prince Demetrius of the Don ).
After Communion he was in the trapeza with the princess, during which time the unknown stranger read from the Book of Job. Hearing the reading, the prince approached the reader and looked him over. Then he bowed down to him, calling his kinsman Michael Maximovich by name. The fool remarked, “Only the Creator knows me, and who I am,” but he confirmed that his name was Michael.
Saint Michael soon set an example for the brethren in all the monastic efforts. He lived at the Klops monastery for forty-four years, exhausting his body in work, vigils and various deprivations, and he received from the Lord the gift of clairvoyance.
He denounced the vices of people, not fearing the powerful of this world. He predicted the birth of Great Prince Ivan III on January 22, 1440, and his capture of Novgorod. He denounced Prince Demetrius Shemyaka for blinding his brother the Great Prince Basil the Dark (1425-1462).
On a sandy spot Saint Michael summoned forth a spring of water, having written upon the earth: “I will take the cup of salvation (Ps. 115/116:13), let the well-spring show forth on this spot.” And during a time of famine, the supplies of bread at the monastery granary did not diminish, though they distributed grain abundantly to the hungry.
Having indicated beforehand the place of his burial, the saint died on January 11, 1453.
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St. Wulstan of Worcester, England
19 January
Bishop of Worcester & confessor, 1008 - 1095. The last bishop of England to receive his pastoral staff from a Saxon king, Saint Edward the Confessor; one of the very few, by Divine intervention, to have kept his Seat after the arrival of William the Conqueror.
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St. Enogatus Bishop of Aleth, France
13 January
Died 631. Bishop Enogatus was the fifth successor of Saint Malo in the see of Aleth, Brittany.
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Saint Juliana of Lazarevo and Murom, Russia
January 2
Righteous Juliana of Lazarevo and Murom presents an astonishing example of a self-denying Russian Christian woman. She was the daughter of the nobleman Justin Nediurev. From her early years she lived devoutly, kept the fasts strictly and set aside much time for prayer. Having been orphaned at an early age, she was given over into the care of relatives, who did not take to her and laughed at her. Juliana bore everything with patience and without complaint. Her love for people was expressed by nursing the sick and sewing clothing for the poor.
The pious and virtuous life of the maiden attracted the attention of the Lazarevo village owner, Yurii Osoryin, who soon married her. The husband’s parents loved their gentle daughter-in-law and left the running of the household in her hands. Domestic concerns did not disrupt the spiritual efforts of Juliana. She always found time for prayer and she was always prepared to feed the orphaned and clothe the poor. During a harsh famine, she herself remained without food, having given away her last morsel to someone begging. When an epidemic started after the famine, Juliana devoted herself completely to the nursing of the sick.
Righteous Juliana had six sons and a daughter. After the death of two of her sons she decided to withdraw to a monastery, but her husband persuaded her to remain in the world, and to continue to raise their children. On the testimony of Juliana’s son, Kallistrat Osoryin, who wrote her Life, at this time she became all the more demanding towards herself: she intensified her fasting and prayer, slept not more than two hours at night, and then laying her head upon a board.
Upon the death of her husband, Juliana distributed to the poor her portion of the inheritance. Living in extreme poverty, she was none the less vivacious, cordial, and in everything she thanked the Lord. The saint was vouchsafed a visitation by Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and guidance by the Mother of God in church. When Righteous Juliana fell asleep in the Lord, she was then buried beside her husband at the church of Saint Lazarus. Here also her daughter, the schemanun Theodosia was buried. In 1614 the relics of Righteous Juliana were uncovered, exuding a fragrant myrrh, from which many received healing.
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St. Convoyon abbot in Redon, France
5 January
Died 868. A Breton by birth, Convoyon became successively deacon of Vannes, recluse, monk at Glanfeuil, and finally, in 831, abbot-founder of the great abbey of Saint Saviour near Redon, Brittany. He was driven from his abbey by the Norsemen and died in exile
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St. Genevieve (Genovefa) of Paris, Virgin
3 January
Born in Nanterre near Paris, France, c. 422; died in Paris, c. 500 Genevieve was born in a village on the outskirts of Paris during the time of Attila the Hun. She was a shepherdess, the only child of Severus and Gerontia, hardworking peasants. Genevieve was so bright and attractive that when Saint Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, was visiting the village with Saint Lupus on their way to Britain in 429 to squelch Pelagianism, he took special notice of the seven-year-old. After his sermon, the inhabitants flocked about them to receive their blessings. Germanus beckoned for her parents and foretold her future sanctity. When he asked Genevieve if she wished to be a spouse of Christ and serve God only, she asked that he bless her and consecrate her from that moment.
Taking a gold coin from his purse, he gave it to her, telling her to keep it always as a reminder of that day and of God to whom her life belonged. Although in later years Genevieve was often hungry and had no other money, she never parted with the coin. Another version recorded by Constantius tells how the holy bishop went to the church, followed by the people, and during the long singing of Psalms and prayers, he laid his hand upon the maiden's head. In either case, she continued tending the sheep and helping her blind mother in spinning and weaving.
When Genevieve was 15, her parents died and she went to live in Paris, where she repeated her vows and the bishop of Paris gave her and two other girls the veil. She settled with her godmother Lutetia in Paris. In the course of time, she became famous for her sanctity. She frequently ate only twice a week--sparingly (a small portion of barley bread and some beans). (This fasting she continued until age 50 when her bishop commanded her to alter her diet.)
She experienced visions and prophecies, which initially evoked hostility from Parisians--to the point that an attempt was made to take her life. But the support of Germanus, who visited her again, and the accuracy of her predictions eventually changed their attitudes. (Germanus also corrected some of her harsher penances during this visit.)
The young girl loved to pray in church alone at night. One day a gust of wind blew out her candle, leaving her in the dark. Genevieve merely concluded that the devil was trying to frighten her. For this reason she is often depicted holding a candle, sometimes with an irritated devil standing near.
Her bravery rallied the city in 451, when Attila II the Hun's army marched on the city in an attempt to wrest Gaul from the Visigoths. The citizens were ready to evacuate the city. As the Huns battered at the gates of Paris, Genevieve persuaded the men to stay and gathered the women of the city for prayer. Her courage depended on complete trust in God, and as Attila and his army approached she encouraged the Parisians to fast and pray in the hope that God would avert disaster. Many citizens spent whole days in prayer with her in the baptistery. It is from this that the devotion to Saint Genevieve, formerly practised at Saint-Jean-le-Rond, the ancient public baptistery of the church of Paris, appears to have originated. She reassured the people that they had the protection of heaven. She cared for the sick, fed the poor, and everywhere inspired confidence. God will protect you, she said, we must trust in Him.
At one point, however, when the crisis was at its height and the people were panic-stricken, they turned against her, wanting to stone her and saying that she was a false prophet who would bring about their destruction, and they threatened to stone her. But the good Bishop Germanus had not forgotten her, and though he lay dying in Ravenna, Italy, he sent his archdeacon Sedulius to pacify the people. Sedulius persuaded the panic-stricken people that Genevieve was not a prophetess of doom, and to listen to her counsel not to abandon their homes.
Many of the inhabitants lost heart and fled in panic, but Genevieve again gathered the women around her, and led them out on to the ramparts of the city, where in the morning light and in the face of the spears of the enemy they prayed to God for deliverance. Providentially, the same night, the invader turned south to Orleans, and again the city was saved, since when Genevieve, who was venerated even by the enemy, has been acclaimed as a saviour and heroine of her people.
In 486 the saint's bravery proved invaluable for the people of Paris for the second time. The Frankish King Clovis killed Syragrius, the Roman representative in Soissons, ending the Roman governance of Gaul. King Childeric of the Franks besieged Paris, bringing its inhabitants to the point of starvation.
One night, when the city was blockaded and there was a serious shortage of food, Genevieve took a boat and rowed out alone (more likely at the head of a company) upon the river into the darkness to Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes. She slipped silently and secretly past the lines of the enemy, landing at dawn far outside the city, where she went from village to village imploring help and gathering food, and returned to Paris--again successfully evading the enemy--with eleven boatloads of precious corn. (Other sources say that nightly she captained eleven barges to collect grain in the Champagne region.)
When the siege was over, Childeric, the ever-pagan conqueror, in admiration of her courage, sent for her and asked what he might do for her. Release your prisoners, she replied. Their only fault was that they so dearly loved their city. And this he granted.
When, on the death of Childeric, Clovis succeeded him and consolidated control of the land from the Rhine to the Loire. He married Childeric's elder daughter, Clothilde, who was a Christian and tried to convert her husband without success. Clovis allowed his first son to be baptized, but the child died. The second son was baptized and came close to death, but recovered at the prayers of Clothilde and Remi.
Meanwhile, Genevieve became his trusted counsellor. Clovis entered a harsh battle and promised to be baptized, if he should win. He won and under the influence of Genevieve, he converted in 496. His people and servants followed suit. Clovis, like Childeric, released many prisoners at her request. Later, however, fresh troubles came to the city, and once more it was threatened by an invading army.
Genevieve also initiated the interest of many people in building a church in honour of Saint Denis, which was afterward rebuilt with a monastery by King Dagobert in 629. Genevieve made many pilgrimages in the company of other maidens to the shrine of Saint Martin of Tours. Her reputation for sanctity is so great that it even reached Saint Simeon the Stylite in Syria (he asked to be remembered in her prayers).
By the time she died King Clovis of the Franks had grown to venerate the saint. It was at Genevieve's suggestion that Clovis began to build the church of SS. Peter and Paul in the middle of Paris, where they interred her body. Later the church was renamed Sainte Genevieve and it was rebuilt in 1746.
In times of national crisis the French have often turned to Genevieve for help. But in 1793 the body of Saint Genevieve was taken from her shrine and publicly burned at the Place de Greve. At the time of the French Revolution, the church was secularised and is now called the Pantheon, a burial place for French worthies. But some of the relics were spared and later placed in the Church of Saint Etienne (Stephen) du Mont, where thousands visit them each year.
Most of the information about Genevieve derives from a Life that claims to be by a contemporary; its authenticity and value are the subject of much discussion. The idea that she was a shepherdess is recent and without authority; the evidence suggests that she came from a family of good position. She was a real person, however; her name is entered in Saint Jerome's Martyrology, which makes her cultus very ancient.
In art she is shown as a shepherdess, usually holding a candle-- which the devil is trying to extinguish, while an angel guards it-- or a book or torch. She may have a coin suspended around her neck (the one Germanus gave her). Sometimes she may be shown as a nun with sheep near her, with the devil at her feet with bellows, a key in one hand and candle in the other, or restoring sight to her mother.
She is the patron saint of Paris, and invoked against disasters, drought and excessive rain, and fever.
F.
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Saint Sylvester of the Kiev Near Caves
January 2
Saint Sylvester of the Caves lived during the twelfth century and was igumen of the Mikhailovsk Vydubitsk monastery at Kiev. He continued the work of Saint Nestor the Chronicler (October 27) and he wrote nine lives of the holy saints of the Kiev Caves. In the service to the Fathers venerated in the Near Caves, Saint Sylvester is called blessed and endowed with “a miraculous gift to ward off demonic suggestions” (Ode 9 of the Canon). Saint Sylvester was buried in the Near Caves, and his memory is celebrated on September 28, and on the second Sunday of Great Lent.
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St. Fintan, Abbot in Doon, Ireland
3 January
6th century. Fintan, a brother of Saint Finlugh, was a disciple of Saint Comgall at Bangor, Ireland. He is honoured as the patron saint of Doon in Limerick. His holy well is still venerated there
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1000 Saints Martyrs in Lichfield, England
2 January
Died 304. Many Christians (possibly about 1000) suffered at Lichfield (Lyke-field, the field of dead bodies) in England during the persecution of Diocletian
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Saint Sylvester, Pope of Rome
January 2
Saint Sylvester, Bishop of Rome (314-335) was born at Rome of Christian parents named Rufinus and Justa. His father soon died, and the saint remained in the care of his mother. Sylvester’s teacher, the presbyter Quirinus, gave him a fine education and raised him as a true Christian.
When he was an adult, Sylvester fulfilled the Lord’s command to love one’s neighbor. He often received strangers and travelers, serving them like a slave in his own home. During a persecution against Christians, Sylvester did not hesitate to take in the holy confessor Bishop Timothy of Antioch, who dwelt with him for more than a year, and who converted many to Christ by his preaching.
Bishop Timothy was arrested and executed on orders of the Prefect Tarquinius. Sylvester secretly took the body of the saint and buried it. This came to the attention of Tarquinius, and the saint was arrested and brought to trial. Tarquinius demanded that he renounce Christ, threatening him with torture and death. Saint Sylvester was however not intimidated, and he remained steadfast in his confession of faith, and was then thrown into prison. When Tarquinius suddenly died after the trial, the saint was set free and fearlessly he evangelized the pagans, converting many to Christianity.
At thirty years of age Saint Sylvester was ordained as a deacon, and then presbyter, by Bishop Marcellinus (296-304). After the death of Bishop Militiades (or Melchiades, 311-314), Saint Sylvester was chosen Bishop of Rome. He encouraged his flock to live in a righteous manner, and he insisted that priests strictly fulfill their duty, and not be involved with secular businesses.
Saint Sylvester became renowned as an expert on Holy Scripture and as a staunch defender of the Christian Faith. During the reign of the emperor Saint Constantine the Great, when the period of persecution had ended for the Church, the Jews arranged a public debate to determine which faith was true. Saint Constantine and his mother, the holy Empress Helen, were present together with a large crowd.
Saint Sylvester spoke for the Christians, and the Jews had one hundred and twenty learned rabbis led by Zambres, a magician and sorcerer. Quoting the sacred books of the Old Testament, Saint Sylvester convincingly demonstrated that all the prophets foretold the birth of Jesus Christ from the all-pure Virgin, and also His voluntary suffering and death for the redemption of the fallen race of mankind, and His glorious Resurrection.
The saint was declared the victor in the debate. Then Zambres tried to resort to sorcery, but the saint obstructed the evil by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zambres and the other Jews came to believe in Jesus Christ, and they asked to be baptized.
Saint Sylvester guided the Roman Church for more than twenty years, earning the esteem of his flock. He died peacefully in old age in the year 335.
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St. Seiriol of Wales
2 January
6th century. A Welsh saint whose memory is perpetuated by the name of the island of Ynys-Seiriol.
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Saint Seraphim, Wonderworker of Sarov, Russia
January 2
Saint Seraphim of Sarov, a great ascetic of the Russian Church, was born on July 19, 1754. His parents, Isidore and Agathia Moshnin, were inhabitants of Kursk. Isidore was a merchant. Toward the end of his life, he began construction of a cathedral in Kursk, but he died before the completion of the work. His little son Prochorus, the future Seraphim, remained in the care of his widowed mother, who raised her son in piety.
After the death of her husband, Agathia Moshnina continued with the construction of the cathedral. Once she took the seven-year-old Prochorus there with her, and he fell from the scaffolding around the seven-storey bell tower. He should have been killed, but the Lord preserved the life of the future luminary of the Church. The terrified mother ran to him and found her son unharmed.
Young Prochorus, endowed with an excellent memory, soon mastered reading and writing. From his childhood he loved to attend church services, and to read both the Holy Scripture and the Lives of the Saints with his fellow students. Most of all, he loved to pray or to read the Holy Gospel in private.
At one point Prochorus fell grievously ill, and his life was in danger. In a dream the boy saw the Mother of God, promising to visit and heal him. Soon past the courtyard of the Moshnin home came a church procession with the Kursk Root Icon of the Sign (November 27). His mother carried Prochorus in her arms, and he kissed the holy icon, after which he speedily recovered.
While still in his youth Prochorus made his plans to devote his life entirely to God and to go to a monastery. His devout mother did not object to this and she blessed him on his monastic path with a copper cross, which he wore on his chest for the rest of his life. Prochorus set off on foot with pilgrims going from Kursk to Kiev to venerate the Saints of the Caves.
The Elder Dositheus (actually a woman, Daria Tyapkina), whom Prochorus visited, blessed him to go to the Sarov wilderness monastery, and there seek his salvation. Returning briefly to his parental home, Prohkor bid a final farewell to his mother and family. On November 20, 1778 he arrived at Sarov, where the monastery then was headed by a wise Elder, Father Pachomius. He accepted him and put him under the spiritual guidance of the Elder Joseph. Under his direction Prochorus passed through many obediences at the monastery: he was the Elder’s cell-attendant, he toiled at making bread and prosphora, and at carpentry. He fulfilled all his obediences with zeal and fervor, as though serving the Lord Himself. By constant work he guarded himself against despondency (accidie), this being, as he later said, “the most dangerous temptation for new monks. It is treated by prayer, by abstaining from idle chatter, by strenuous work, by reading the Word of God and by patience, since it is engendered by pettiness of soul, negligence, and idle talk.”
With the blessing of Igumen Pachomius, Prochorus abstained from all food on Wednesdays and Fridays, and went into the forest, where in complete isolation he practiced the Jesus Prayer. After two years as a novice, Prochorus fell ill with dropsy, his body became swollen, and he was beset with suffering. His instructor Father Joseph and the other Elders were fond of Prochorus, and they provided him care. The illness dragged on for about three years, and not once did anyone hear from him a word of complaint. The Elders, fearing for his very life, wanted to call a doctor for him, but Prochorus asked that this not be done, saying to Father Pachomius: “I have entrusted myself, holy Father, to the True Physician of soul and body, our Lord Jesus Christ and His All-Pure Mother.”
He asked that a Molieben be offered for his health. While the others were praying in church, Prochorus had a vision. The Mother of God appeared to him accompanied by the holy Apostles Peter and John the Theologian. Pointing with Her hand towards the sick monk, the Most Holy Virgin said to Saint John, “He is one of our kind.” Then She touched the side of the sick man with Her staff, and immediately the fluid that had swelled up his body began to flow through the incision that She made. After the Molieben, the brethren found that Prochorus had been healed, and only a scar remained as evidence of the miracle.
Soon, at the place of the appearance of the Mother of God, an infirmary church was built for the sick. One of the side chapels was dedicated to Saints Zosimas and Sabbatius of Solovki (April 17). With his own hands, Saint Seraphim made an altar table for the chapel out of cypress wood, and he always received the Holy Mysteries in this church.
After eight years as a novice at the Sarov monastery, Prochorus was tonsured with the name Seraphim, a name reflecting his fiery love for the Lord and his zealous desire to serve Him. After a year, Seraphim was ordained as hierodeacon.
Earnest in spirit, he served in the temple each day, incessantly praying even after the service. The Lord granted him visions during the church services: he often saw holy angels serving with the priests. During the Divine Liturgy on Great and Holy Thursday, which was celebrated by the igumen Father Pachomius and by Father Joseph, Saint Seraphim had another vision. After the Little Entrance with the Gospel, the hierodeacon Seraphim pronounced the words “O Lord, save the God-fearing, and hear us.” Then, he lifted his orarion saying, “And unto ages of ages.” Suddenly, he was blinded by a bright ray of light.
Looking up, Saint Seraphim beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, coming through the western doors of the temple, surrounded by the Bodiless Powers of Heaven. Reaching the ambo, the Lord blessed all those praying and entered into His Icon to the right of the royal doors. Saint Seraphim, in spiritual rapture after this miraculous vision, was unable to utter a word, nor to move from the spot. They led him by the hand into the altar, where he just stood for another three hours, his face having changed color from the great grace that shone upon him. After the vision the saint intensified his efforts. He toiled at the monastery by day, and he spent his nights praying in his forest cell.
In 1793, Hierodeacon Seraphim was ordained to the priesthood, and he served the Divine Liturgy every day. After the death of the igumen Father Pachomius, Saint Seraphim received the blessing of the new Superior Father Isaiah, to live alone in a remote part of the forest three and a half miles from the monastery. He named his new home “Mount Athos,” and devoted himself to solitary prayer. He went to the monastery only on Saturday before the all-night Vigil, and returned to his forest cell after Sunday’s Liturgy, at which he partook of the Divine Mysteries.
Father Seraphim spent his time in ascetical struggles. His cell rule of prayer was based on the rule of Saint Pachomius for the ancient desert monasteries. He always carried the Holy Gospels with him, reading the entire New Testament in the course of a week. He also read the holy Fathers and the service books. The saint learned many of the Church hymns by heart, and sang them while working in the forest. Around his cell he cultivated a garden and set up a beehive. He kept a very strict fast, eating only once during the entire day, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he completely abstained from food. From the first Sunday of the Great Fast he did not partake of food at all until the following Saturday, when he received the Holy Mysteries.
The holy Elder was sometimes so absorbed by the unceasing prayer of the heart that he remained without stirring, neither hearing nor seeing anything around him. The schemamonk Mark the Silent and the hierodeacon Alexander, also wilderness-dwellers, would visit him every now and then. Finding the saint immersed in prayer, they would leave quietly, so they would not disturb his contemplation.
In the heat of summer the righteous one gathered moss from a swamp as fertilizer for his garden. Gnats and mosquitoes bit him relentlessly, but he endured this saying, “The passions are destroyed by suffering and by afflictions.”
His solitude was often disturbed by visits from monks and laymen, who sought his advice and blessing. With the blessing of the igumen, Father Seraphim prohibited women from visiting him, then receiving a sign that the Lord approved of his desire for complete silence, he banned all visitors. Through the prayers of the saint, the pathway to his wilderness cell was blocked by huge branches blown down from ancient pine trees. Now only the birds and the wild beasts visited him, and he dwelt with them as Adam did in Paradise. They came at midnight and waited for him to complete his Rule of prayer. Then he would feed bears, lynxes, foxes, rabbits, and even wolves with bread from his hand. Saint Seraphim also had a bear which would obey him and run errands for him.
In order to repulse the onslaughts of the Enemy, Saint Seraphim intensified his toil and began a new ascetical struggle in imitation of Saint Simeon the Stylite (September 1). Each night he climbed up on an immense rock in the forest, or a smaller one in his cell, resting only for short periods. He stood or knelt, praying with upraised hands, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” He prayed this way for 1,000 days and nights.
Three robbers in search of money or valuables once came upon him while he was working in his garden. The robbers demanded money from him. Though he had an axe in his hands, and could have put up a fight, he did not want to do this, recalling the words of the Lord: “Those who take up the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt. 26: 52). Dropping his axe to the ground, he said, “Do what you intend.” The robbers beat him severely and left him for dead. They wanted to throw him in the river, but first they searched the cell for money. They tore the place apart, but found nothing but icons and a few potatoes, so they left. The monk, regained consciousness, crawled to his cell, and lay there all night.
In the morning he reached the monastery with great difficulty. The brethren were horrified, seeing the ascetic with several wounds to his head, chest, ribs and back. For eight days he lay there suffering from his wounds. Doctors called to treat him were amazed that he was still alive after such a beating.
Father Seraphim was not cured by any earthly physician: the Queen of Heaven appeared to him in a vision with the Apostles Peter and John. Touching the saint’s head, the Most Holy Virgin healed him. However, he was unable to straighten up, and for the rest of his life he had to walk bent over with the aid of a stick or a small axe. Saint Seraphim had to spend about five months at the monastery, and then he returned to the forest. He forgave his abusers and asked that they not be punished.
In 1807 the abbot, Father Isaiah, fell asleep in the Lord. Saint Seraphim was asked to take his place, but he declined. He lived in silence for three years, completely cut off from the world except for the monk who came once a week to bring him food. If the saint encountered a man in the forest, he fell face down and did not get up until the passerby had moved on. Saint Seraphim acquired peace of soul and joy in the Holy Spirit. The great ascetic once said, “Acquire the spirit of peace, and a thousand souls will be saved around you.”
The new Superior of the monastery, Father Niphon, and the older brethren of the monastery told Father Seraphim either to come to the monastery on Sundays for divine services as before, or to move back into the monastery. He chose the latter course, since it had become too difficult for him to walk from his forest cell to the monastery. In the spring of 1810, he returned to the monastery after fifteen years of living in the wilderness.
Continuing his silence, he shut himself up in his cell, occupying himself with prayer and reading. He was also permitted to eat meals and to receive Communion in his cell. There Saint Seraphim attained the height of spiritual purity and was granted special gifts of grace by God: clairvoyance and wonderworking. After five years of solitude, he opened his door and allowed the monks to enter. He continued his silence, however, teaching them only by example.
On November 25, 1825 the Mother of God, accompanied by the two holy hierarchs commemorated on that day (Hieromartyr Clement of Rome, and Saint Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria), appeared to the Elder in a vision and told him to end his seclusion and to devote himself to others. He received the igumen’s blessing to divide his time between life in the forest, and at the monastery. He did not return to his Far Hermitage, but went to a cell closer to the monastery. This he called his Near Hermitage. At that time, he opened the doors of his cell to pilgrims as well as his fellow-monks.
The Elder saw into the hearts of people, and as a spiritual physician, he healed their infirmities of soul and body through prayer and by his grace-filled words. Those coming to Saint Seraphim felt his great love and tenderness. No matter what time of the year it was, he would greet everyone with the words, “Christ is Risen, my joy!” He especially loved children. Once, a young girl said to her friends, “Father Seraphim only looks like an old man. He is really a child like us.”
The Elder was often seen leaning on his stick and carrying a knapsack filled with stones. When asked why he did this, the saint humbly replied, “I am troubling him who troubles me.”
In the final period of his earthly life Saint Seraphim devoted himself to his spiritual children, the Diveyevo women’s monastery. While still a hierodeacon he had accompanied the late Father Pachomius to the Diveyevo community to its monastic leader, Mother Alexandra, a great woman ascetic, and then Father Pachomius blessed Saint Seraphim to care always for the “Diveyevo orphans.” He was a genuine father for the sisters, who turned to him with all their spiritual and material difficulties.
Saint Seraphim also devoted much effort to the women’s monastic community at Diveyevo. He himself said that he gave them no instructions of his own, but it was the Queen of Heaven who guided him in matters pertaining to the monastery. His disciples and spiritual friends helped the saint to feed and nourish the Diveyevo community. Michael V. Manturov, healed by the monk from grievous illness, was one of Diveyvo’s benefactors. On the advice of the Elder he took upon himself the exploit of voluntary poverty. Elena Vasilievna Manturova, one of the Diveyevo sisters, out of obedience to the Elder, voluntarily consented to die in place of her brother, who was still needed in this life.
Nicholas Alexandrovich Motovilov, was also healed by the monk. In 1903, shortly before the glorification of the saint, the remarkable “Conversation of Saint Seraphim of Sarov with N. A. Motovilov” was found and printed. Written by Motovilov after their conversation at the end of November 1831, the manuscript was hidden in an attic in a heap of rubbish for almost seventy years. It was found by the author S. A. Nilus, who was looking for information about Saint Seraphim’s life. This conversation is a very precious contribution to the spiritual literature of the Orthodox Church. It grew out of Nicholas Motovilov’s desire to know the aim of the Christian life. It was revealed to Saint Seraphim that Motovilov had been seeking an answer to this question since childhood, without receiving a satisfactory answer. The holy Elder told him that the aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and went on to explain the great benefits of prayer and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
Motovilov asked the saint how we can know if the Holy Spirit is with us or not. Saint Seraphim spoke at length about how people come to be in the Spirit of God, and how we can recognize His presence in us, but Motovilov wanted to understand this better. Then Father Seraphim took him by the shoulders and said, “We are both in the Spirit of God now, my son. Why don’t you look at me?”
Motovilov replied, “I cannot look, Father, for your eyes are flashing like lightning, and your face is brighter than the sun.”
Saint Seraphim told him, “Don’t be alarmed, friend of God. Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are in the fulness of the Spirit of God yourself, otherwise you would not be able to see me like this.”
Then Saint Seraphim promised Motovilov that God would allow him to retain this experience in his memory all his life. “It is not given for you alone to understand,” he said, “but through you it is for the whole world.”
Everyone knew and esteemed Saint Seraphim as a great ascetic and wonderworker. A year and ten months before his end, on the Feast of the Annunciation, Saint Seraphim was granted to behold the Queen of Heaven once more in the company of Saint John the Baptist, the Apostle John the Theologian and twelve Virgin Martyrs (Saints Barbara, Katherine, Thekla, Marina, Irene, Eupraxia, Pelagia, Dorothea, Makrina, Justina, Juliana, and Anysia). The Most Holy Virgin conversed at length with the monk, entrusting the Diveyevo sisters to him. Concluding the conversation, She said to him: “Soon, My dear one, you shall be with us.” The Diveyevo nun Eupraxia was present during this visit of the Mother of God, because the saint had invited her.
In the last year of Saint Seraphim’s life, one of those healed by him saw him standing in the air during prayer. The saint strictly forbade this to be mentioned until after his death.
Saint Seraphim became noticeably weaker and he spoke much about his approaching end. During this time they often saw him sitting by his coffin, which he had placed in the ante-room of his cell, and which he had prepared for himself.
The saint himself had marked the place where finally they would bury him, near the altar of the Dormition cathedral. On January 1, 1833 Father Seraphim came to the church of Saints Zosimas and Sabbatius one last time for Liturgy and he received the Holy Mysteries, after which he blessed the brethren and bid them farewell, saying: “Save your souls. Do not be despondent, but watchful. Today crowns are being prepared for us.”
On January 2, Father Paul, the saint’s cell-attendant, left his own cell at six in the morning to attend the early Liturgy. He noticed the smell of smoke coming from the Elder’s cell. Saint Seraphim would often leave candles burning in his cell, and Father Paul was concerned that they could start a fire.
“While I am alive,” he once said, “there will be no fire, but when I die, my death shall be revealed by a fire.” When they opened the door, it appeared that books and other things were smoldering. Saint Seraphim was found kneeling before an icon of the Mother of God with his arms crossed on his chest. His pure soul was taken by the angels at the time of prayer, and had flown off to the Throne of the Almighty God, Whose faithful servant Saint Seraphim had been all his life.
Saint Seraphim has promised to intercede for those who remember his parents, Isidore and Agathia.
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Physician Saints
SAINT LUKE THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
d. 68
Feast day: 18 October
Saint Luke, the Evangelist, was a Greek doctor; he was called “Our Beloved Luke, the Physician” by the peripatetic Saint Paul of Tarsus (Col. 4:14). Evidence of Saint Luke’s medical background is peppered throughout his gospel. For example, when the other two synoptic evangelists recorded Christ’s warning that a rich man will have no more ease passing through the gates of heaven than would a camel passing through the eye of a needle, they use the household term for a woman’s sewing needle. Saint Luke, on the other hand, uses the Greek word for a surgeon’s suturing needle. At another point, in telling the story of the woman who suffered from hemorrhage, Saint Luke – keenly aware of the mercenary pitfalls of our profession — adds the sardonic observation that the woman had already spent all of her money seeking the advice of many physicians, and yet had been helped by not a one of them (Luke 8:43-48 vs Matthew 9:20-22) Luke alone of the evangelists recounts Christ’s stunning allegory of compassion and selflessness in the context of providing healing care for the helpless, the injured and afflicted — the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37)
An inherently pro-life physician, Luke uses the same Greek word for “baby”, whether writing about a baby in the womb or about a babe in the manger. And it is he who recounts how Saint John the Baptist, while still in the womb of Saint Elizabeth, leapt for joy at the approach of Jesus, unborn but very much alive, within the womb of his Virgin Mother (Luke 1:39-45). Finally, it is within the Gospel of Saint Luke, that Jesus makes his only reference to us practitioners of medicine: “Physician, heal thyself!” (Luke 4:23).
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SAINT URSICINUS OF RAVENNA
Physician/Martyr
Feast day: June 19
d. circa 67
Saint Ursicinus, a physician in Ravenna, was condemned for being a Christian during the persecution of Emperor Nero. His faith began to waver, but he found new strength through the encouragement of Saint Vitalis and met his death with resolve.
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SAINT ALEXANDER, PHYSICIAN
Physician/Martyr of Lyons
Feast day: June 2
d. 177
Saint Alexander was born in Phrygia, but praticed medicine in Gaul, where he converted to Christianity. “Well known for his love of God and his boldness in spreading the Gospel,”4 he was arrested during the persecutions conducted by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Alexander was caught encouraging fellow Christians, who had been condemned to death, to remain steadfast under torture. With forty-seven other Christians, Alexander was himself then tortured and executed, as one of the Martyrs of Lyons and Vienne.,
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SAINT THALELAEUS
Merciful physician and martyr
Feast day: May 20
d. 284
Saint Thalelaeus, a physician, was martyred with Saints Alexander, Asterius and companions. The son of a Roman general, he earned the epithet, “the Merciful One,” owing to his charitable service to the poor and sick in the town of Anazarbus, in Cilicia (Asia Minor). He was martyred at Aegae, in Cilicia, by beheading after drowning failed to kill him.1
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SAINT PANTALEON
Physician Wonder-Worker
(also known as Panteleemon, Panteleimon)
Feast Day: July 27
d. circa 300
Saint Pantaleon is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, known for their efficacious response to prayer, who are especially venerated in France and Germany. Pantaleon’s name in Greek, means “the all-compassionate one.” It is said that he was a doctor of such skill that Emperor Maximian, a great persecutor of Christians, employed Pantaleon as his court physician. Pantaleon had been raised as a Christian, but in the fanatically anti-Christian and dissolute court of Maximian, he lost his faith and nearly his soul with his self-indulgent lifestyle.
In time, however, a fellow-Christian restored the Saint Pantaleon to the faith he had abandoned. From that time Pantaleon’s skills were at the disposal of the poor. The wealth he had gained from his successful practice he gave away. Other physicians, jealous of his position at court, saw Pantaleon’s renewed faith as an opportunity for discrediting him. When the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian broke out in Nicomedia in 303, Pantaleon this time refused to reject the faith; instead he chose death. Vain attempts were made to put him to death in six different ways–including drowning, fire, and wild beasts–before he was successfully beheaded amidst a halo of other marvels.
A reputed relic of Pantaleon’s blood, kept at Ravello in southern Italy, displays the phenomenon of liquefaction on his feast day, similar to that of Saint Januarius. Saint Pantaleon has made the news recently, when his relics, on loan from Greece, were placed on display near what had until recently been the site of Lenin’s tomb. People were queuing up for hours, and youth, in particular, flocked to view the Saint’s relics. Russian media are calling the response phenomenal.
In art, Saint Pantaleon is a physician holding a phial of medicine. At times he may be depicted healing a sick child or bound with hands above his head to an olive tree, to which he is nailed. Together with Saint Raphael, Saints Cosmas and Damian, and Saint Luke, Pantaleon is a patron of the medical profession. He is invoked against tuberculosis and other lung diseases, and he is also patron of bachelors and of victims of torture (not that these two latter conditions are necessarily related). ,
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SAINTS COSMAS AND DAMIAN
Twin doctors who never charged a fee!
Feast Day: September 27
Date: circa 300
These two saints are venerated in the East as the “moneyless ones,” because they practiced medicine without ever charging their patients a fee. These twin brothers were born in Arabia and studied medicine in Syria. They practiced medicine on the coast of Cilicia in what is now Turkey, with remarkable generosity and outspoken zeal for their Christian faith. Their widespread reputation proved their undoing, when a persecution against Christians broke out. They were quickly arrested, tortured horribly, and beheaded, along with three of their other brothers. Many miraculous healings have since been attributed to their intervention. Saints Cosmas and Damian are considered Patrons of physicians and surgeons, as well as of pharmacists. They, along with Saint Luke, are the three physician saints cited in the canon of the Mass.
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SAINTS CYRUS AND JOHN
Martyrs from Arabia and Alexandria
Feast day: January 31
d. 303
Saint Cyrus was an Alexandrian doctor who used his calling to convert many of his patients to Christianity. He joined an Arabian physician named John in encouraging Athanasia and her three daughters to remain constant in their faith under torture at Canopus, Egypt. They, in turn, were both seized and tortured, and then all six were beheaded.3
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SAINT ZENOBIUS
Physician martyred with his sister.
Feast day: October 30
d. 305
Saint Zenobius was a priest and physician from the town of Aegae, in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), who practiced in Sidon (Palestine). He was tortured to death on the rack, in the city of Antioch, during the persecutions of Diocletian. Zenobia, his sister, was martyred with him.3,
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SAINT DIOMEDES
Physician from Tarsus
Feast day: August 16
d. circa 350
A martyr of Nicaea, in Bythinia, Saint Diomedes was originally a physician in Tarsus, in Cilicia. Saint Diomedes was a fervent preacher of the faith. 5
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SAINT CAESARIUS OF NAZIANZUS
Sainthood ran in his family
Feast day: February 25
d. 369
Brother of St. Gregory Nazianzus and son of St. Gregory the Elder, Saint Caesarius studied medicine and philosophy at Alexandria, Egypt, and in Constantinople. Famous as a physician, Caesarius was appointed to the court of Emperor Julian the Apostate, who tried repeatedly to get him to renounce the Christian faith. Caesarius was then only a catechumen, a Christian in training, but he resigned from the court rather than deny Christ. He later served Emperor Jovian as physician and was the treasurer for Emperor Valens.5
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SAINT SAMSON
Physician/Priest and Father of the Poor
Feast day: June 27
d. 530
Also called Samson Xenodochius “the Hospitable,” this latter day Samson was noted not for his physical prowess, but rather for the heroic strength of his character and his compassion. Saint Samson was a doctor renowned for his selfless charity. A physician in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), he went on to become a priest, in order to tend to both the physical and spiritual welfare of his patients. Samson founded a well-known hospital near the Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople. He was revered as “Father of the Poor.”
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SAINT EMILIAN
Physician martyred with his cousin
Feast day: December 6
d. 484
Saint Emilian, a physician in Northern Africa, was flayed alive, along with Saint Tertius, for refusing to convert to the Arian heresy. His cousin, Saint Dionysia, and her son, Saint Majoricus, had already been tortured and burned at the stake.
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SAINT SOPHIA THE MARTYR AND PHYSICIAN
Commemorated May 22
The Holy Martyr Sophia, the Physician, dies by the sword.
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SAINT ALEXANDER SCHMORELL THE DOCTOR, THE NEW MARTYR
d. 1943
July 13, feast day
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SAINT ZENAIDA OF TARSUS
Commemorated on October 11
d. 100
The Martyrs Zenaida and Philonilla lived in Tarsus in Cilicia during the first century, and were related to Apostle Paul. They were pious Christian women, and both of them shared a love of learning. By whatever means were available to them at that time, they acquired medical knowledge.
The two sisters left home and settled in a cave near the city of Demetriada where they lived in constant prayer and work. The citizens of Demetriada soon learned that there were two women doctors who gladly treated everyone who turned to them for help, yet did not require payment for their services. They also healed people's souls by converting them to Christ.
Late one night, pagans came to their cave and stoned them. Sts. Zenaida and Philonilla suffered martyrdom for Christ, thereby receiving incorruptible crowns of glory from the Lord.
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St. Fanchea of Rossory, Virgin
(Fainche, Garbh)
1 January
Died c. 585. Many amazing stories are related about her in the life of Saint Enda, who is generally regarded as the father of Irish monasticism. Fanchea was an early nun with special capabilities as a directress of souls. She is said to be a native of Clogher, who persuaded her brother, Saint Enda, to become a monk. She was the abbess-founder of a convent at Rossory, Fermanagh, and was buried at Killane.
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St. Cuan, Abbot in Ireland
(Mochua, Moncan)
1 January
6th century. An Irish abbot, who founded many churches and monasteries and who lived to be nearly 100.
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St. Fintan, son of Eochach, of Bealach in Ireland
1 January
Sixth or seventh century. Fintan Mac Eochach, of Bealach, has been set down in the "Martyrology of Tallagh" at the 1st of January. It is not easy to discover where the "bealach," meaning a "pass" or "road," lay. At this date the "Martyrology of Donegal" likewise registers Fuintain, son of Eochaidh, descended from the race of Laeghaire, son to Niall of the Nine Hostages. At the period of his death, which probably occurred sometime about the close of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century, he passed to a blessed life, promised to faithful servants, in the household of the Lord (O'Hanlon).
https://celticsaints.org
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Saint Theogenes, Hieromartyr Bishop of Parium on the Hellespont, Asia Minor
January 2
The Hieromartyr Theogenes was bishop of the Asia Minor city of Parion at the beginning of the fourth century. During the reign of the emperor Licinius (311-324), a coruler with Constantine the Great, the tribune Zalinkinthius demanded that he give up the priesthood, to renounce Christ and to enlist in military service.
When he refused, Saint Theogenes was mercilessly beaten with rods and thrown into prison, where he was not allowed any food. Then they sentenced him to be drowned in the sea. Before his execution, the saint requested time to pray. As he prayed, an extraordinary light shone on him. The sailors and some of the soldiers who were ordered to drown the saint were struck by the light and were converted to Christ. Other soldiers hastened to cast him into the sea.
Saint Theogenes received the unfading crown of martyrdom around the year 320. His body was later taken from the water by Christians and buried at the city walls. At this spot, numerous healings occurred.
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Saint Colmán 3rd Bishop of Lindisfarne (+664)
It is during the abbacy of Saint Colmán, also sent from Iona to take over Lindisfarne, that the Easter dating controversy had to be resolved in Northumbria. An impossible situation had emerged as King Oswy was celebrating Easter in accordance with the calculation method of Iona and Lindisfarne whereas his wife, Queen Eanfleda, was celebrating Easter according to the other method because she had been brought up in Kent which used the Roman method. The Synod of Whitby was called in 664 and ultimately it was decided that Northumbria would follow the Roman method.
Saint Colmán left Lindisfarne with those monks who were disappointed with the result of the synod. He returned to Iona and then to Ireland where he founded the great School of Mayo which was also known as Mayo of the Saxons because of the Anglo-Saxons who came with him. This is covered in Book IV, Chapter IV of ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’ The most notable of these Anglo-Saxon followers of Saint Colmán was Saint Gerald of Mayo who became the next abbot. This new monastery was on a small island called Inishbofin.
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St. Derfel Gadarn of Bardsey Island, Wales (+6th ce.)
5 April
5th or 6th century. According to tradition, Saint Derfel was a great Welsh soldier who fought at the Battle of Camlan (537), where King Arthur was killed. He may have been a monk and abbot at Bardsey and later a solitary at Llanderfel, Merionethshire, Wales, thus becoming its founder and patron. A wooden statue of him mounted on a horse and holding a staff was greatly venerated in the church at Llanderfel until it was used for firewood in the burning of John Forest, Queen Catherine of Aragon's confessor, at Smithfield, England. The remains of Derfel's staff and horse can be seen in Llanderfel.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0405a.html
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Saints Probus and Grace, husband and wife, in Wales (+5th ce.)
5 April
Date unknown. Probus and Grace are traditionally considered to be a Welsh husband and wife duo. The church of Tressilian, or Probus, in Cornwall is dedicated in their honour. St Probus' and Saint Grace's relics are still within the Church that has grown over the site of his oratory.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0405d.html
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Saint Patrick of Ireland (+461) and the laws of Ireland in the 5th century
"The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland" by the Four Masters state that by the year 438 Christianity had made such progress in Ireland that the laws were changed to agree with the Gospel.
That means that in a few years a 60 year old man was able to so change the country that even the laws were amended. St. Patrick had no printing press, no finances, few helpers and Ireland had no Roman roads to travel on.
Orthodox Ireland
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Saint Ciaran of Saigher, Bishop and Confessor of Ossory, Ireland (+530) - March 5
5th century. St. Ciaran or Kieran, the Elder is believed to have been a contemporary of St. Patrick if not a precursor of this great saint. He was born at Cape Clear, where there is a church reputedly built by him, but he went to the Continent for his education and was ordained and consecrated bishop there before returning to Ireland. He settled as a hermit at Saighir near to the Slieve Bloom Mountains but soon disciples were attracted to him and a large monastery grew up round his cell, which became the chosen burial place for the Kings of Ossory. His mother Liaden is said to have gone to Saighir with a group of women who devoted their lives to the service of God and the members of her son's community.
There are many stories of miracles wrought by God through Ciaran, including several restorations to life of those who had died, and there are charming tales of his relations with the animal kingdom. One of these related how the most blessed bishop and first begotten of the Saints of Ireland "as a youth saw a hawk swooping down and snatching a fledgling from its nest. Ciaran, moved with pity for the little creature, prayed for its deliverance and the hawk flew down and laid it at his feet, torn and bleeding, but at once it was wonderfully restored to health and strength. There are considerable remains at Saighir among them the carved base of a high cross and St. Ciaran is regarded as the Patron of Munster with the fifth of March as his feast day.
and:
This St. Kieran is commemorated in all dioceses of Ireland, for he is reputed to have been the "firstborn" of Irish saints.
Kieran's biography is full of obscurities. It is commonly said, however, that he left Ireland before the arrival of St. Patrick. Already a Christian, and of royal Ulster blood, he had determined to study for the Church; hence, he secured an education at Tours and Rome. On his return from France, he built himself a little cell in the woods of Upper Ossory.
There he spent the next few years as a hermit. Inevitably, however, other devout men joined him to form a monastery called "Saigher" (that is, "Sier-Ciaran," - "Kieran's Seat"). Later, he built nearby a monastery for women, the care of which he entrusted to his mother Liadan. Thus Kieran, rather than Brigid, seems to have been the pioneer founder of Irish women's convents. Around these foundations arose a village called Saigher, after the monastery.
When St. Patrick arrived in Ireland to carry the Faith throughout Erin, Abbot Kieran gave him his glad assistance. Some writers say that Kieran was then already a bishop, having been ordained while on the continent. It seems more likely, however, that he was one of the twelve men that Patrick, on his arrival, consecrated as helpers. It was customary in the early days for abbots to be ordained as bishops but to remain heads of their monasteries. The Diocese of Ossory considers Abbot Kieran as its first bishop. (He may also be the St. "Piran" venerated in Cornwall, Wales and Brittany.)
Many legends inevitably arose, too charming to leave untold, about this ancient hermit and bishop.
One story involves the Christmas communion of St. Cuach, Abbess of a monastery far away from Saigher. She had been Kieran's nurse when he was a child, and as a priest he always celebrated Mass for her community on Christmas night, after having presided at the midnight Mass of his own abbey. But nobody could figure out how he got to the convent of Ross-Bennchuir, so many miles distant, and returned that same night. The chronicler of the story suggests that it was by a miracle like that in which God once lifted up the prophet Habakkuk by the hair of his head and sped him from Palestine to Chaldea.
A second tale was that of Chrichidh, the boy from Clonmacnois whom St. Kieran had admitted to his monastery as a servant. One Easter the young servant mischievously extinguished the Easter Fire. (This was lighted at the monastery annually on Holy Saturday, and then kept burning all year as the only source of warmth or light in the monastic household.) Kieran predicted that for this thoughtless act, the lad would meet an untimely death. The very next day, as Chrichidh sauntered through the woods, he was killed and eaten by a wolf.
Soon afterward, St. Kieran the Younger (of Clonmacnois) arrived at Saigher, and was invited to dine by its monks. But he said he would not eat with them until his young friend Chrichidh from Clonmacnois had been restored to life. Out of hospitality in their chilly abbey, the older Kieran prayed for a little heat, and a ball of fire landed in his lap, which sufficed to warm up monks and visitor. Bishop Kieran then told his namesake that he should not hesitate to sit at table with them, for the boy was about to enter. Thereupon Chrichidh, raised from the dead, came in, sat down, and began to eat with his usual gusto.
The last story also concerns a miraculous resuscitation. King Aengus of Munster had seven minstrels whose songs about dead heroes pleased him. These minstrels, wandering through the land, were one day murdered by the king's enemies. They threw the bodies into the waters of a bog and hung their harps on a tree. Aengus mourned the loss. But St. Kieran informed him that the identity of the murderers and the place of the killing had been revealed to him. The king accompanied the saint to the spot. After Kieran had fasted a day on bread and water, the bog went dry, and he and Aengus saw the seven bodies of the songsters lying in the mud. Kieran then prayed that they might come back to life. Although a month dead, all seven promptly arose, their lives fully restored. Taking their harps, they thanked their benefactors with a recital of their sweetest songs.
The chronicler concluded, That bog has remained dry ever since. Whatever the truth of this legend, one central fact remains certain: that God will heed the prayers of a worthy person. Ask, said our Lord, and you shall receive.
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Saint Dymphna the Virgin-Martyr in Ireland (+620)
Saint Dymphna’s name in Irish means poetess. Her mother was a pious Christian but her father was a pagan. Her father, Damon, was a king in a region in the north of Ireland called Oriel. In her youth, Saint Dymphna took a vow of chastity.
Unfortunately her mother died when she was still young. After this, there was a change in her father as he sunk into a deep depression. He was encouraged by those close to him to remarry in the hopes that this would improve his dark mood. However, he said he would not marry any woman less beautiful than his wife. After a long search for such a woman, none could meet his exacting standard. As his mental and spiritual health deteriorated, Damon began to be attracted to his own daughter due to her physical similarity to his deceased wife.
Realising his intentions, Saint Dymphna fled Ireland with her priest, Saint Gerebernus. They sailed to continental Europe and arrived in a city called Geel (in Belgium). While there she gave much in charity to the poor and sick. Damon eventually discovered her location and went there himself. He ordered his soldiers to kill Saint Gerebernus. He was martyred and Damon tried to convince Saint Dymphna to return to Ireland but she adamantly refused. Enraged, Damon himself drew his sword and beheaded her. The residents of Geel buried and venerated them.
The site of their tombs healed many from madness. In the 15th century, it attracted pilgrims from all over Europe. A tradition began to allow the people suffering from madness to stay at the homes of the citizens of Geel. They would be encouraged to work and participate in the life of the city and were not looked on with contempt or even as patients. Incredibly this tradition has persisted to the modern day and Geel is infamous for its community driven efforts to heal the mentally and spiritually disturbed.
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St. Modomnoc O'Neil (Domnoc, Dominic, Modomnoc) of Ossory, Ireland (+550)
February 13
Died c. 550. Modomnoc, descended of the Irish royal line of O'Neil, had to leave Ireland to train for the priesthood, since he was a student before the creation of the great Irish monasteries. His name is most likely to have been Dom or Donogh but the Celtic saints were so tenderly loved that "my", "little" and "dear" were very often added to the names, which completely altered their appearance. Another disciple from Ireland much loved by St.David was originally called Aidan, but usually appears in accounts of the monastery as Maidoc.
He crossed the English Channel to be educated under the great Saint David at Mynyw (Menevia, now Saint David's) Monastery in Wales. All those who resided in the community were expected to share in the manual work as well as the study and worship, and there is a story which tells how one day Modomnoc was working with another monk making a road, when he had occasion to rebuke him for some matter. The other monk was seized with anger and took up a crowbar, but before he could bring it down on Modomnoc, SaintDavid, who was witness to the incident, stayed his arm by his spiritual powers and it remained paralysed.
Modomnoc was given charge of the bees and he loved it. And so did everyone else--they all loved honey, but few like taking charge of the hives. Modomnoc liked the bees almost more than he liked their honey. He cared for them tenderly, keeping them in straw skeps in a special sheltered corner of the garden, where he planted the kinds of flowers best loved by the bees.
Every time they swarmed, he captured the swarm very gently and lovingly and set up yet another hive. He talked to the bees as he worked among them and they buzzed around his head in clouds as if they were responding. And, of course, they never stung him.
At the end of summer, they gave him much honey, so much that Modomnoc needed help carrying it all inside. The monks never ran out of honey for their meals or making mead to drink. The good Modomnoc thanked God for this, and he also thanked the bees. He would walk among the skeps in the evening and talk to them, and the bees, for their part, would crowd out to meet him. All the other monks carefully avoided that corner of the monastery garden because they were afraid of being stung.
As well as thanking the bees, Modomnoc did everything he could to care for them in cold and storm. Soon his years of study ended, and Modomnoc had to return to Ireland to begin his priestly ministry. While he was glad to be returning home, he knew he would be lonely for his bees. On the day of his departure, he said good-bye to the Abbot, the monks, and his fellow students. Then he went down to the garden to bid farewell to his bees.
They came out in the hundreds of thousands in answer to his voice and never was there such a buzzing and excitement among the rows and rows of hives. The monks stood at a distance watching the commotion in wonder, You'd think the bees knew, they said. You'd think they knew that Modomnoc was going away.
Modomnoc resolutely turned and went down to the shore and embarked the ship. When they were about three miles from the shore, Modomnoc saw what looked like a little black cloud in the sky in the direction of the Welsh coast. He watched it curiously and as it approached nearer, he saw to his amazement that it was a swarm of bees that came nearer and nearer until finally it settled on the edge of the boat near him. It was a gigantic swarm--all the bees from all the hives, in fact. The bees had followed him!
This time Modomnoc did not praise his friends. How foolish of you, he scolded them, you do not belong to me but to the monastery! How do you suppose the monks can do without honey, or mead? Go back at once, you foolish creatures! But if the bees understood what he said, they did not obey him. They settled down on the boat with a sleepy kind of murmur, and there they stayed. The sailors did not like it one bit and asked Modomnoc what he intended to do.
He told them to turn the boat back for Wales. It was already too far for the bees to fly back, even if they wanted to obey him. He could not allow his little friends to suffer for their foolishness. But the wind was blowing the boat to Ireland and when they turned back, the sail was useless. The sailors had to furl it and row back to the Welsh coast. They did it with very bad grace, but they were too much afraid of the bees to do anything else.
Saint David and the monks were very surprised to see Modomnoc coming back and looking rather ashamed. He told them what had happened. The moment the boat had touched land again, the bees had made straight for their hives and settled down contentedly again. Wait until tomorrow, advised the abbot, but don't say farewell to the bees again. They will be over the parting by then.
Next morning, the boat was again in readiness for Modomnoc and this time he left hurriedly without any fuss of farewell. But when they were about three miles from the shore, he was dismayed to see again the little black cloud rising up over the Welsh coast. Everyone recognised the situation and the sailors turned back to shore immediately.
Once more the shamefaced Modomnoc had to seek out David and tell his story. What am I to do? he pleaded. I must go home. The bees won't let me go without them. I can't deprive you of them. They are so useful to the monastery.
David said, Modomnoc, I give you the bees. Take them with my blessing. I am sure they would not thrive without you. Take them. We'll get other bees later on for the monastery.
The abbot went down to the boat and told the sailors the same story. If the bees follow Modomnoc for the third time, take them to Ireland with him and my blessing. But it took a long time and a great deal of talking to get the sailors to agree to this. They did not care who had the bees as long as they weren't in their boat.
The abbot assured the sailors that the bees would give no trouble as long as Modomnoc was onboard. The sailors asked, if that were so, why the bees did not obey Modomnoc's command to return to the monastery. After much back and forth, the sailors were finally persuaded into starting out again.
For the third time the boat set sail, Modomnoc praying hard that the bees would have the sense to stay in their pleasant garden rather than risking their lives at sea. For the third time he saw the little black cloud rising up in the distance, approaching nearer and nearer until he saw it was the same swarm of bees again. It settled on the boat once more. This time it did not turn back. Modomnoc coaxed his faithful friends into a sheltered corner of the boat, where they remained quietly throughout the journey, much to the sailors' relief.
When he landed in Ireland, he set up a church at a place called Bremore, near Balbriggan, in County Dublin, and here he established the bees in a happy garden just like the one they had in Wales. The place is known to this day as the Church of the Beekeeper.
He became a hermit at Tibberaghny in County Kilkenny and some say he was later consecrated Bishop of Ossory (Benedictines, Curtayne).
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Saint Gobnata (Gobnet, Gobnait) of Ballyvourney, Ireland (+6th ce.) - February 11
6th century One of the most popular of the saints of Munster, she was born in County Clare but had to flee from enemies and took refuge in the Isle of Aran, where there is a church at Inisheer, Kilgobnet, Gobnat's church. After a time an angel appeared and told her that this was not to be the place of her resurrection but she must make a journey until she came upon nine white deer and this would be the sign for her to settle and build a monastery.
So she set out to search for the spot that God had chosen for her and she founded churches on the way, among them Dunguin in County Kerry and Dungarven in County Waterford. It was in County Cork that she saw three white deer near Cloudrohid; then at Ballymakeera she saw six and going further she arrived at Ballyvourney and found nine grazing near a wood. There she founded her monastery.
Saint Abban of Kilabban, County Meath, Ireland, is said to have worked with her on the foundation of the convent in Ballyvourney, County Cork, on land donated by the O'Herlihy family, and to have placed Saint Gobnat over it as abbess.
St Gobnat had a particular calling to care for the sick and she is credited with saving the people at Ballyvourney from the plague. She is also regarded as the Patroness of bees. Gobnata (meaning "Honey Bee", which is the equivalent of the Hebrew "Deborah") Of course honey is a useful ingredient in many medicines but she is said to have driven off a brigand by sending a swarm of bees after him and making him restore the cattle he had stolen. In fact she seems to have been very able in dealing with brigands. Set in the wall of the ruined church at Ballyvourney there is a round stone, which she is said to have used as a sort of boomerang to prevent the building of a castle by another brigand on the other side of the valley from her monastery. Every time he began building she sent the stone across and knocked down the walls, as fast as he could build, until he gave up in despair.
There is a field near to the village called the Plague Field commemorating the area she marked out as consecrated ground, across which the plague could not pass. The "Tomhas Ghobnata", which is the Gaelic for Gobnat's measure, a length of wool measured against her statue, is still in demand for healing, and in the church a much worn wooden statue of the thirteenth century is preserved and shown on her festival. At Killeen there is Gobnat's Stone, an early cross pillar that has a small figure bearing a crozier on one side.
A well still exists at Ballyvourney that is named after her. As with many Irish saints, there are stories of wondrous interactions with nature.
Her grave in the churchyard at Ballyvourney is decorated with crutches and other evidence of cures obtained through Gobnata's intercession. Among the miracles attributed to her intercession were the staying of a pestilence by marking off the parish as sacred ground. Another tradition relates that she routed an enemy by loosing her bees upon them. Her beehive has remained a precious relic of the O'Herlihys.
The round stone associated with her is still preserved. In art, Saint Gobnata is represented as a beekeeper.
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Saints Máel Ruain (+792) and Óengus of Tallaght, Ireland (+824)
Most of the great Irish monasteries were founded in the 6th century. The next generations of saints often were trained at sites such as Clonard, Clonmacnoise, Iona, etc. However, there was one more great monastic foundation that would be established later than the rest. That was Tallaght, founded in the 8th century by Saint Máel Ruain.
The etymology of Tallaght refers to a gravesite for victims of plague. Tallaght is referred to in the Lebor Gabála Érenn as the burial site of the Partholonians, a people group, who were wiped out by a plague in Ireland’s ancient history. This is a topic that should be of great interest to those interested in an Orthodox Christian perspective of the history of Ireland because texts such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn were written and passed down by the Church and are a part of its tradition.
Less is known about Saint Máel Ruain himself than the monastery and its successes. Regularly referred to resources for anyone studying the Irish saints are the Martyrology of Tallaght and the Martyrology of Óengus, both produced from the monastery of Tallaght. It is also from Tallaght, while Saint Máel Ruain was abbot, that a monastic movement known as the Céilí Dé, anglicised as the Culdees, began. This is a large topic that has a range of interpretations in academic literature. Orthodox Christian appraisals of the Céilí Dé are hopefully on the near horizon!
The other great saint of Tallaght was Saint Óengus. He had been a hermit in a hermitage that he founded called the Dísert Óengusa but his piety and asceticism eventually attracted many visitors. Saint Óengus wished for more solitude and obscurity and for this reason left and joined Tallaght as a lay brother, disguising his significant reputation and experience in monasticism. Saint Máel Ruain eventually discovered his true identity. As implied by the name, the Martyrology of Óengus was written by him.
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