Synaxis 3 Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom
Vigil. Kept with an All-Night Vigil.
Commemorated today
- Synaxis of the Three Holy Hierarchs: St Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian, and St John ChrysostomA synaxis — several kept together life on this site
The lives we have written
Saint Gregory the Theologian
A reluctant pastor with a poet’s soul entered a divided capital and proclaimed the Holy Trinity with such clarity that the Church remembers him simply as “the Theologian.”
- Era
- c. 329–c. 390
- Region
- Cappadocia and Constantinople
- Category
- Hierarch, Church Father, poet, and one of the Three Holy Hierarchs
- Feast
- January 25
Saint John Chrysostom
The “Golden-Mouthed” preacher opened Scripture with extraordinary power, then made enemies by insisting that worship of Christ cannot be separated from mercy toward the poor.
- Era
- c. 347–407
- Region
- Antioch, Constantinople, and Armenia
- Category
- Hierarch, Church Father, preacher, and one of the Three Holy Hierarchs
- Feast
- November 13; also commemorated January 27 and January 30
- Saint Peter, King of Bulgaria (970)d. 970
What is known
The title places them at Bulgaria. The year given is 970.
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.
- Hippolytos, Pope of RomeHierarch
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 Rome. 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.
- Athanasia the Martyr & her 3 daughtersMartyr
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.
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
- Deuteronomy 1:8–11, 15–17
- Deuteronomy 10:14–21
- Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9
- John 10:9–16
- Hebrews 13:7–16
- Matthew 5:14–19
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on January 30 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on February 12 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.