Saints A - B

Orthodox icon of Saint Athanasios, Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria, Αθανάσιος (2).

Commemorated January 18.

Saint Athanasius took part in the First Ecumenical Council when he was still a deacon. He surpassed everyone there in his zeal to uphold the teaching that Christ is consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father, and not merely a creature, as the Arians proclaimed. This radiant beacon of Orthodoxy spent most of his life in exile from his See, because of the plotting of his enemies. He returned to his flock as he was approaching the end of his life. Like an evening star, he illumined the Orthodox faithful with his words for a little while, then reposed in 373. He is also commemorated on May 2 (the transfer of his holy relics).

Orthodox icon of Saint Athanasios, Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria. Copy of an icon of 14th cent (3)

Commemorated January 18.

Orthodox icon of Saint Athanasios the Founder of the Great Lavra Monastery and Coenobitic Monasticism in Mt. Athos. Copy of an icon of 13 cent. from the Church of Protato, Mount Athos.

Commemorated July 5.

Born in the city of Trebezond, he was orphaned at an early age, and being raised by a certain good and pious nun, he imitated his adoptive mother in the habits of monastic life, in fasting and in prayer. After the death of his adoptive mother, he was taken to Constantinople, to the court of the Byzantine emperor Romanus the Elder, and was enrolled as a student under the renowned rhetorician Athanasius. During these days there had arrived at Constantinople St Michael Maleinos who taught him much in questions of salvation. He went to the Kyminas monastery and, falling down at the feet of the holy igumen, he begged to be received into the monastic life.

The igumen (Abbot) fulfilled his request with joy and tonsured him with the name Athanasius. With long fasts, vigils, bending of the knees, with works night and day Athanasius soon attained such perfection, that the holy igumen blessed him for the exploit of silence in a solitary place not far from the monastery. Later on, having left Kyminas, he made the rounds of many desolate and solitary places, and guided by God, he came to a place called Melanos, at the very extremity of Athos, settling far off from the other monastic dwellings.

Here the monk made himself a cell and began to live an ascetical life in works and in prayer. Emperor Nicephorus sought him tobuild a monastery. He built a large church in honor of the holy Prophet and Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, and another church at the foot of a hill, in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. Around the church were the cells, and a wondrous monastery arose on the Holy Mountain. In it were a trapeza (dining area), a hospice for the sick and for taking in wanderers, and other necessary structures.

The saint established at the monastery a cenobitic monastic Rule on the model of the old Palestinian monasteries. Many times he was privileged to see The Most Holy Theotokos with his own eyes. By God's dispensation, there once occurred such a hunger, that the monks one after the other quit the Lavra. The saint remained all alone and, in a moment of weakness, he also considered leaving. Suddenly he beheld a Woman beneath an ethereal veil, coming to meet him. Would you forsake the monastery which was intended for glory from generation unto generation, just for a morsel of dry bread? Where is your faith? Turn around, and I shall help you. "Who are you"? asked Athanasius. "I am the Mother of the Lord" She answered, and bid Athanasius to strike his staff upon a stone.

From the fissure there gushed forth a spring of water, which exists even now, in remembrance of this miraculous visitation. St Athanasius, foreseeing the time of his departure to the Lord, prophesied about his impending end and besought the brethren not to be troubled over what he foresaw. Alert and joyful, the holy igumenos went up with six of the brethren to the top of the church to inspect the construction. Suddenly, through the imperceptible will of God, the top of the church collapsed. Five of the brethren immediately gave up their souls to God. St Athanasius and the architect Daniel, thrown upon the stones, remained alive. All heard the saint call out to the Lord, Glory to Thee, O God! Lord, Jesus Christ, help me! The brethren with great weeping began to dig out their father from the rubble, but they found him already dead.

Reference: O.C.A. 

Orthodox icon of Saints Athanasios, the Founder of the Great Lavra and Coenobitic Monasticism on Mt. Athos. Icon of 16th cent. Mount Athos (2).

Commemorated July 5.

Born in the city of Trebezond, he was orphaned at an early age, and being raised by a certain good and pious nun, he imitated his adoptive mother in the habits of monastic life, in fasting and in prayer. After the death of his adoptive mother, he was taken to Constantinople, to the court of the Byzantine emperor Romanus the Elder, and was enrolled as a student under the renowned rhetorician Athanasius. During these days there had arrived at Constantinople St Michael Maleinos who taught him much in questions of salvation. He went to the Kyminas monastery and, falling down at the feet of the holy igumen, he begged to be received into the monastic life.

The igumen (Abbot) fulfilled his request with joy and tonsured him with the name Athanasius. With long fasts, vigils, bending of the knees, with works night and day Athanasius soon attained such perfection, that the holy igumen blessed him for the exploit of silence in a solitary place not far from the monastery. Later on, having left Kyminas, he made the rounds of many desolate and solitary places, and guided by God, he came to a place called Melanos, at the very extremity of Athos, settling far off from the other monastic dwellings.

Here the monk made himself a cell and began to live an ascetical life in works and in prayer. Emperor Nicephorus sought him tobuild a monastery. He built a large church in honor of the holy Prophet and Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, and another church at the foot of a hill, in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. Around the church were the cells, and a wondrous monastery arose on the Holy Mountain. In it were a trapeza (dining area), a hospice for the sick and for taking in wanderers, and other necessary structures. The saint established at the monastery a cenobitic monastic Rule on the model of the old Palestinian monasteries.

Many times he was privileged to see The Most Holy Theotokos with his own eyes. By God's dispensation, there once occurred such a hunger, that the monks one after the other quit the Lavra. The saint remained all alone and, in a moment of weakness, he also considered leaving. Suddenly he beheld a Woman beneath an ethereal veil, coming to meet him. Would you forsake the monastery which was intended for glory from generation unto generation, just for a morsel of dry bread? Where is your faith? Turn around, and I shall help you. "Who are you"? asked Athanasius. "I am the Mother of the Lord" She answered, and bid Athanasius to strike his staff upon a stone.

From the fissure there gushed forth a spring of water, which exists even now, in remembrance of this miraculous visitation. St Athanasius, foreseeing the time of his departure to the Lord, prophesied about his impending end and besought the brethren not to be troubled over what he foresaw. Alert and joyful, the holy igumenos went up with six of the brethren to the top of the church to inspect the construction. Suddenly, through the imperceptible will of God, the top of the church collapsed. Five of the brethren immediately gave up their souls to God. St Athanasius and the architect Daniel, thrown upon the stones, remained alive.

All heard the saint call out to the Lord, Glory to Thee, O God! Lord, Jesus Christ, help me! The brethren with great weeping began to dig out their father from the rubble, but they found him already dead.

Orthodox icon of Saint Athena.

Commemorated September 1st.

Orthodox icon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

Commemorated June 15.

Saint Augustine was born in the city of Thagaste in northern Africa. He was raised by his mother, St Monica (May 4), and he received his education at Carthage. In the capacity of professor of rhetoric, Augustine arrived at Milan, Italy where St Ambrose (December 7) was bishop. Under the guidance of St Ambrose, Augustine studied the Holy Scriptures. The Word of God produced in his soul a radical crisis; he accepted holy Baptism, gave all his wealth to the poor and was tonsured as a monk. In the year 391 Valerian, Bishop of Hippo, ordained Saint Augustine a priest, and in 395, appointed him vicar bishop of the see of Hippo.

After the death of Bishop Valerian, St Augustine took his place. During his 35 years as bishop, St Augustine wrote many works devoted to combating the Donatist, Manichaean and Pelagian heresies. St Augustine wrote many works (according to his student and biographer Possidias, the number approached 1030). Of his works the best known are: The City of God (De civitate Dei), The Confessions, 17 Books against the Pelagians and Handbook of Christian Knowledge (The Enchiridion).

St Augustine was concerned above all else that his writings be intelligent and edifying. It is better, he said, for them to condemn our grammar, than for people not to understand. St Augustine died on August 28, 430.

Reference: O.C.A. 

Orthodox icon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

Commemorated June 15.

Saint Augustine was born in the city of Thagaste in northern Africa. He was raised by his mother, St Monica (May 4), and he received his education at Carthage. In the capacity of professor of rhetoric, Augustine arrived at Milan, Italy where St Ambrose (December 7) was bishop. Under the guidance of St Ambrose, Augustine studied the Holy Scriptures.

The Word of God produced in his soul a radical crisis; he accepted holy Baptism, gave all his wealth to the poor and was tonsured as a monk. In the year 391 Valerian, Bishop of Hippo, ordained Saint Augustine a priest, and in 395, appointed him vicar bishop of the see of Hippo. After the death of Bishop Valerian, St Augustine took his place. During his 35 years as bishop, St Augustine wrote many works devoted to combating the Donatist, Manichaean and Pelagian heresies.

St Augustine wrote many works (according to his student and biographer Possidias, the number approached 1030). Of his works the best known are: The City of God (De civitate Dei), The Confessions, 17 Books against the Pelagians and Handbook of Christian Knowledge (The Enchiridion). St Augustine was concerned above all else that his writings be intelligent and edifying. It is better, he said, for them to condemn our grammar, than for people not to understand. St Augustine died on August 28, 430.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Barbara , the Great Martyr at Heliopolis in Syria.

Commemorated December 4th.

Protector Saint of : Pregnant Women

Holy Great Martyr Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioscorus, was a rich and illustrious man in the Syrian city of Heliopolis. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to his only daughter. Seeing Barbara's extraordinary beauty, Dioscorus built a tower for Barbara, where only her pagan teachers were allowed to see her. The fame of her beauty spread throughout the city, and many sought her hand in marriage. But despite the entreaties of her father, she refused all of them.

During this time a luxurious bathhouse was being built at the house of Dioscorus. By his orders the workers prepared to put two windows on the south side. But Barbara, taking advantage of her father's absence, asked them to make a third window, thereby forming a Trinity of light. On one of the walls of the bath-house Barbara traced a cross with her finger. The cross was deeply etched into the marble, as if by an iron instrument. Later, her footprints were imprinted on the stone steps of the bathhouse. The water of the bathhouse had great healing power.

When Dioscorus returned and expressed dissatisfaction about the change in his building plans, his daughter told him about how she had come to know the Triune God, about the saving power of the Son of God, and about the futility of worshipping idols. Dioscorus went into a rage, grabbed a sword and was on the point of striking her with it. The holy virgin fled from her father, and he rushed after her in pursuit. His way became blocked by a hill, which opened up and concealed the saint in a crevice.

On the other side of the crevice was an entrance leading upwards. St Barbara managed then to conceal herself in a cave on the opposite slope of the hill. After a long and fruitless search for his daughter, he caught and handed her over to the prefect of the city, named Martianus. In the crowd where the martyr was tortured was the virtuous Christian woman Juliana, an inhabitant of Heliopolis. Juliana also wanted to suffer for Christ. She began to denounce the torturers in a loud voice, and they seized her. Both martyrs were tortured for a long time.

Dioscorus himself executed St Barbara. The wrath of God was not slow to punish both torturers, Martianus and Dioscorus. They were killed after being struck by lightning. Many pious Orthodox Christians are in the habit of chanting the Troparion of St Barbara each day, recalling the Savior's promise to her that those who remembered her and her sufferings would be preserved from a sudden, unexpected death, and would not depart this life without benefit of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Barnabas, the Apostle.

Commemorated June 11th.

Holy Apostle Barnabas of the Seventy was born on the island of Cyprus into the family of the tribe of Levi, and he was named Joseph. He received his education at Jerusalem, being raised with his friend and fellow student Saul (the future Apostle Paul) under the renowned teacher of the Law, Gamaliel. Joseph was pious, he frequented the Temple, he strictly observed the fasts and avoided youthful distractions. During this time period our Lord Jesus Christ began His public ministry. Seeing the Lord and hearing His Divine Words, Joseph believed in Him as the Messiah. Filled with ardent love for the Savior, he followed Him.

The Lord chose him to be one of His Seventy Apostles. The other Apostles called him Barnabas, which means son of consolation. After the Ascension of the Lord to Heaven, Barnabas sold land belonging to him near Jerusalem and he brought the money to the feet of the Apostles, leaving nothing for himself (Acts 4:36-37). When Saul arrived in Jerusalem after his conversion and sought to join the followers of Christ, everyone there was afraid of him since he had persecuted the Church only a short while before. Barnabas, however, came with him to the Apostles and reported how the Lord had appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:26-28).

Saint Barnabas went to Antioch to encourage the believers, Having come and having seen the grace of God, he rejoiced and he urged all to cleave to the Lord with sincerity of heart (Acts 11:23). Then he went to Tarsus, and brought the Apostle Paul to Antioch, where for about a year they taught the people. It was here that the disciples first began to be called Christians (Acts 11:26). With the onset of famine, and taking along generous alms, Paul and Barnabas returned to Jerusalem.

When King Herod killed St James the son of Zebedee, and had the Apostle Peter put under guard in prison to please the Jews, Sts Barnabas and Paul and Peter were led out of the prison by an angel of the Lord. They hid out at the house of Barnabas aunt Maria. Later, when the persecution had quieted down, they returned to Antioch, taking with them Maria's son John, surnamed Mark. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophets and teachers there imposed hands upon Barnabas and Paul, and sent them off to do the work to which the Lord had called them (Acts 13:2-3).

Arriving in Seleucia, they sailed off to Cyprus and in the city of Salamis they preached the Word of God in the Jewish synagogues. On Paphos they came across a sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was close with the proconsul Sergius. Wishing to hear the Word of God, the proconsul invited the saints to come to him. The sorcerer attempted to sway the proconsul from the Faith, but the Apostle Paul denounced the sorcerer, who through his words suddenly fell blind. The proconsul believed in Christ (Acts 13:6-12).

From Paphos Barnabas and Paul set sail for Pergamum of Pamphylia, and then they preached to the Jews and the Gentiles at Pisidian Antioch and throughout all that region. The Jews rioted and expelled Paul and Barnabas. The saints arrived in Iconium, but learning that the Jews wanted to stone them, they withdrew to Lystra and Derben. There the Apostle Paul healed a man, crippled in the legs from birth. The people assumed them to be the gods Zeus and Hermes and wanted to offer them sacrifice. The saints just barely persuaded them not to do this (Acts 14:8-18). When the question arose whether those converted from the Gentiles should accept circumcision, Barnabas and Paul went to Jerusalem.

There they were warmly received by the Apostles and elders. The preachers related what God had wrought with them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles  (Acts 14:27). After long deliberations the Apostles collectively resolved not to impose any sort of burden upon Gentile Christians except what was necessary: to refrain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood (Acts 15:19-20). Letters were sent with Barnabas and Paul, and they again preached at Antioch, and after a certain while they decided to visit the other cities where they had visited earlier.

St Barnabas wanted to take Mark along with him, but St Paul did not want to, since earlier he had left them. A quarrel arose, and they separated. Paul took Silas with him and went to Syria and Cilicia, while Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus (Acts 15:36-41). Having multiplied the number of believers, St Barnabas traveled to Rome, where he was perhaps the first to preach Christ. St Barnabas founded the episcopal see at Mediolanum (now Milan), and upon his return to Cyprus he continued to preach about Christ the Savior. Then the enraged Jews incited the pagans against Barnabas, and they led him out beyond the city and stoned him, and then built a fire to burn the body.

Later on, having come upon this spot, Mark took up the unharmed body of St Barnabas and buried it in a cave, placing upon the saint's bosom, in accord with his final wishes, the Gospel of Matthew which he had copied in his own hand. St Barnabas died in about the year 62, at age seventy-six. In time, the burial spot was forgotten, but numerous signs took place at this spot. In the year 448, during the time of the emperor Zeno, St Barnabas appeared three times in a dream to Archbishop Anthimus of Cyprus and indicated the place where his relics were buried.

Starting to dig at the indicated spot, Christians found the incorrupt body of the saint, and upon his chest was the Holy Gospel. It was during this time that the Church of Cyprus began to be regarded as Apostolic in origin, and received the right of choosing its head. Thus St Barnabas defended Cyprus against the pretensions of the opponent of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the heretic surnamed Knapheios, who had usurped the patriarchal throne at Antioch and tried to gain dominion over the Church of Cyprus.

Reference: O.C.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel the Apostle (3). Copy a contemporary icon.

Commemorated June 11.

Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel, was one of the Twelve Apostles, and was from Galilee.He traveled preaching the Gospel in Arabia and Persia, and especially in India. He also is believed to have traveled to Armenia. According to some, Saint Bartholomew ended his life by being crucified, or by being flayed alive, in Albanopolis (Urbanopolis) of Armenia.

Orthodox icon of Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel the Apostle. Copy os an icon of 16 cent. Moscow.

Commemorated June 11.

Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel, was one of the Twelve Apostles, and was from Galilee.He traveled preaching the Gospel in Arabia and Persia, and especially in India. He also is believed to have traveled to Armenia. According to some, Saint Bartholomew ended his life by being crucified, or by being flayed alive, in Albanopolis (Urbanopolis) of Armenia.

Orthodox icon of Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel the Apostle (3). Copy a contemporary icon.

Commemorated June 11.

Saint Bartholomew or Nathaniel, was one of the Twelve Apostles, and was from Galilee.He traveled preaching the Gospel in Arabia and Persia, and especially in India. He also is believed to have traveled to Armenia. According to some, Saint Bartholomew ended his life by being crucified, or by being flayed alive, in Albanopolis (Urbanopolis) of Armenia.

Orthodox icon of Saint Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (1).

Commemorated January 1.

Saint Basil the Great was born about the end of the year 329 in Caesarea of Cappadocia, to a family renowned for their learning and holiness. His parents' names were Basil and Emily. His mother Emily (commemorated July 19) and his grandmother Macrina (Jan. 14) are Saints of the Church, together with all his brothers and sisters: Macrina, his elder sister (July 19), Gregory of Nyssa (Jan. to), Peter of Sebastia (Jan. 9), and Naucratius. Basil studied in Constantinople under the sophist Libanius, then in Athens, where also he formed a friendship with the young Gregory, a fellow Cappadocian, later called "the Theologian."

Through the good influence of his sister Macrina (see July 19), he chose to embrace the ascetically life, abandoning his worldly career. He visited the monks in Egypt, in Palestine, in Syria, and in Mesopotamia, and upon returning to Caesarea, he departed to a hermitage on the Iris River in Pontus, not far from Annesi, where his mother and his sister Macrina were already treading the path of the ascetically life; here he also wrote his ascetically homilies.

About the year 370, when the bishop of his country reposed, he was elected to succeed to his throne and was entrusted with the Church of Christ, which he tended for eight years, living in voluntary poverty and strict asceticism, having no other care than to defend holy Orthodoxy as a worthy successor of the Apostles. The Emperor Valens, and Modestus, the Eparch of the East, who were of one mind with the Arians, tried with threats of exile and of torments to bend the Saint to their own confession, because he was the bastion of Orthodoxy in all Cappadocia, and preserved it from heresy when Arianism was at its strongest.

But he set all their malice at nought, and in his willingness to give himself up to every suffering for the sake of the Faith, showed himself to be a martyr by volition. Modestus, amazed at Basil's fearlessness in his presence, said that no one had ever so spoken to him. "Perhaps," answered the Saint, "you have never met a bishop before." The Emperor Valens himself was almost won over by Basil's dignity and wisdom. When Valens' son fell gravely sick, he asked Saint Basil to pray for him. The Saint promised that his son would be restated if Valens agreed to have him baptized by the Orthodox; Valens agreed, Basil prayed, and the son was restored.

But afterwards the Emperor had him baptized by Arians, and the child died soon after. Later, Valens, persuaded by his counsellors, decided to send the Saint into exile because he would not accept the Arians into communion; but his pen broke when he was signing the edict of banishment. He tried a second time and a third, but the same thing happened, so that the Emperor was filled with dread, and tore up the document, and Basil was not banished.

The truly great Basil, spent with extreme ascetical practices and continual labors, at the helm of the church, departed to the Lord on the 1st of January, in 379. at the age of forty-nine. His writings are replete with wisdom and erudition, and rich are these gifts he set forth the doctrines concerning the mysteries both of the creation (see his Hexaemeron) and of the Holy Trinity (see On the Holy Spirit). Because of the majesty and keenness of his eloquence, he is honored as "the revealer of heavenly things" and "the Great." Saint Basil is also celebrated on January 30th with Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint John Chrysostom.

Reference: G.O.A.A.

Orthodox icon of Saint Basil the Great.

Commemorated January 1st.