Commemorated today
- Venerable Maximus the ConfessorConfessor — suffered for the faith but was not killed life on this site
The life we have written
Venerable Maximus the Confessor
His tongue was cut out and his hand severed, but the teaching he defended endured: Christ possesses a complete human will and freely heals human obedience from within.
- Era
- c. 580–662
- Region
- Constantinople, North Africa, Rome, and the Caucasus
- Category
- Monk, theologian, and confessor
- Feast
- January 21; also commemorated August 13
- Holy Martyr Agnes of Rome (c. 304)Martyr · d. c. 304
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 Rome. The year given is about 304.
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 Maximos the Greek (1556)d. 1556
What is known
The year given is 1556.
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.
- Neophytos the Martyr of NicaeaMartyr
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 Nicaea. 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.
Appointed readings
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on January 21 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on February 3 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.