Commemorated today
- Our Holy Father Nikephoros the Hesychast (14th century)14th century
What is known
The year given is the 14th century.
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.
- Virgin Martyr Pelagia of TarsusMartyr
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 Tarsus.
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 Monica, mother of Blessed Augustine (388)Blessed · d. 388 life on this site
The life we have written
Saint Monica of Tagaste
Known through the candid writings of her son Augustine, Monica prayed across many difficult years, but her holiness lies not in forcing another person’s conversion: it lies in entrusting those she loved to the freedom and mercy of God.
- Era
- c. 331–387
- Region
- Roman North Africa, Rome, and Milan
- Category
- Righteous wife, mother, widow, and woman of prayer
- Feast
- May 4 in the Orthodox Church
- Hilary the WonderworkerWonderworker
What is known
Wonderworker records that miracles were attributed to this saint, during life or at the relics afterwards. It is a statement about what the Church received, not a claim this site can check.
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.
- Athanasios, Bishop of CorinthHierarch
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 Corinth. 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.
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on May 4 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on May 17 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.