St. Vladimir Equal to Apostles icon (2)

Orthodox icon of Saint. Veronica,  or saint Berenice.

Commemorated July 12.

This Orthodox icon is of Saint Veronica who was a pious woman of Jerusalem in the first century AD. According to Tradition, Saint Veronica was the woman with the issue of blood, who received healing by touching the hem of Christ's robe (Mt. 9:20). She is also known as the woman who wiped Jesus's face with her veil. Then the image of Jesus's face appeared on it.

Orthodox icon of Saint Victor of Damascus (Saint for the name Victoria too). Copy of a contemporary icon, made by the iconographer Themis Petrou.

Commemorated November 11.

Saints Victor served as a soldier in the Roman army during the reign of Emperor Antoninus (138-161). He was converted to Christianity and was eventually tortured.

Many idolaters accepted Christianity through his witness.The pagans arrested Saint Victor as a Christian and cut off his fingers, put out his eyes, and beheaded him in Damascus. 

Orthodox icon of Saint Xanthippe, the Disciple of the Apostles.

Commemorated September 23.

The Monastic Women Xanthippe and Polyxene were sisters by birth and they lived in Spain in the time of the holy Apostles. They were among the first to hear the divine teaching of Christ the Savior from the holy Apostle Paul, when he preached in their land. St Xanthippe and her husband Probus accepted Christianity, but St Polyxene was still a pagan when a certain man became entranced with her extraordinary beauty and forcibly carried her off to Greece on a ship.

The Lord preserved her unharmed. On the voyage, the saint heard the preaching of the holy Apostle Peter and believed in Christ. When she arrived in Greece, St Polyxene turned to the Christians for protection and defense and they hid her in the city of Patra in Achaia, where she formally accepted Christianity and was baptized by the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called himself. She became a witness to his miracles, and how he patiently and humbly endured his sufferings and death. She stood at the cross upon which they crucified the holy Apostle Andrew.

After his martyric death, St Polyxene returned to Spain, where she and her older sister Xanthippe converted many pagans to Christ. St Polyxene toiled for about forty years preaching the Gospel in Spain. St Xanthippe shared in her sister's work and preached in the populous city of Toledo. St Polyxene reposed in about the year 109, having preserved her virginity to the end of her earthly life. Referench