Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas
Polyeleos. Kept with the Polyeleos at Matins.
Commemorated today
- St Innocent, enlightener of Alaska and Siberia (1879)d. 1879 life on this site
The life we have written
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Innocent of Alaska and Moscow
A married missionary priest who learned the languages of the peoples he served became a bishop of immense territories and, finally, Metropolitan of Moscow—yet he never outgrew the conviction that the Gospel must be offered with patience, understanding, and love.
- Era
- 1797–1879
- Region
- Siberia, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and Moscow
- Category
- Missionary, translator, bishop, and Equal-to-the-Apostles
- Feast
- March 31; also October 6, the anniversary of his glorification
- Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (326)Hieromartyr — a bishop or priest killed for the faith · d. 326
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 Gangra. The year given is 326.
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.
- St Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow (1461)Hierarch · d. 1461
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 Moscow. The year given is 1461.
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.
- Theophilos the Martyr and those with himMartyr
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.
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.
- Akakios the ConfessorConfessor — suffered for the faith but was not killed
What is known
A confessor suffered for the faith and lived: imprisoned, exiled, tortured, stripped of office. The Church honours the witness without requiring the death.
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
- Composite 2 – Proverbs 10, 3, 8
- Composite 3 – Wisdom of Solomon 4, 5
- Composite 4 – Proverbs 10; Wisdom of Solomon 6, 7, 8, 9
- John 10:1–9
- Hebrews 7:26–8:2 continues in 8
- John 10:9–16
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on March 31 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on April 13 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.