Leavetaking of Dormition
Commemorated today
- Leavetaking of Dormition
What is known
One of the Twelve Great Feasts: the falling asleep of the Theotokos, preceded by a two-week fast.
This is a feast of the Church rather than the commemoration of a person, so there is no life behind it to tell.
- Martyr Lupus, Slave of St DemetriusMartyr
What is known
A martyr died rather than deny Christ. The word is Greek for witness, and the Church uses it in that sense: the death is testimony, not merely a fate. Most of these deaths fall in the Roman persecutions before 313, though the title is not restricted to them.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- Hieromartyr Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (202)Hieromartyr — a bishop or priest killed for the faith · d. 202 life on this site
The life we have written
Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons
A disciple of a disciple of the apostles defended the goodness of creation, the unity of Scripture, and the saving work by which Christ gathers fractured humanity into Himself.
- Era
- Second century, c. 130–c. 202
- Region
- Smyrna and Lyons
- Category
- Hierarch, theologian, peacemaker, and traditionally a martyr
- Feast
- August 23
- Hieromartyr Pothinos, Bishop of Lyons (177)Hieromartyr — a bishop or priest killed for the faith · d. 177
What is known
A hieromartyr was a bishop, priest or deacon killed for the faith. The clergy were often taken first in a persecution, because removing them scattered the community that depended on them.
The title places them at Lyons. The year given is 177.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- Our Righteous Father Nicholas of SikelionRighteous
What is known
The righteous are lay men and women commemorated for holiness in ordinary life rather than for martyrdom or monastic vows.
The title places them at Sikelion. Kept in the Greek tradition.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- Our Holy Father Kallinikos, Patriarch of ConstantinopleHierarch
What is known
A hierarch is a bishop — including patriarchs, metropolitans and archbishops. The Church commemorates bishops in this rank whether they are remembered chiefly for teaching, for governing, or for holding a see through a difficult century.
The title places them at Constantinople. Kept in the Greek tradition.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- Haralambos of Kalyviani
What is known
The title places them at Kalyviani. Kept in the Greek tradition.
Beyond this, no life of them survives that could be checked — which is true of most of the saints kept on any given day. The commemoration is the record.
- 38 Martyrs of ThraceMartyr
What is known
A martyr died rather than deny Christ. The word is Greek for witness, and the Church uses it in that sense: the death is testimony, not merely a fate. Most of these deaths fall in the Roman persecutions before 313, though the title is not restricted to them.
The title places them at Thrace. Kept in the Greek tradition.
They are kept together rather than separately, and for most of them the number, the place and the manner of death are the whole of what is recorded.
Appointed readings
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on August 23 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on September 5 by the civil calendar. The movable cycle, which turns on the date of Pascha and changes every year, is on the calendar page. Where a life has been written on this site the name links to it; where it has not, only what the commemoration itself attests is shown, and nothing is added to it.