Commemorated today
- Martyrs Acepsimus, Joseph, AithalasMartyr
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.
- Holy Virgin Martyr Winefride of Treffynnon (Holywell), Wales (7th century)Martyr · 7th century
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 Treffynnon. The year given is the 7th 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.
- Dedication of the Temple of the Holy Great Martyr George in LyddaGreat Martyr · Dedication of a church
What is known
A great martyr is one whose sufferings were unusually prolonged or public, and whose veneration spread widely and early. The title marks the scale of what was endured and of the honour that followed, not a higher rank in heaven.
The title places it at Lydda. Kept in the Greek tradition.
What is kept is the building's own feast — the day it was consecrated — rather than the life of the saint it was named for.
- George of Neapolis the New MartyrNew Martyr — killed under Ottoman or modern persecution
What is known
A new martyr died in one of the later persecutions rather than the Roman ones — most often under Ottoman rule, or in the twentieth century under Soviet and other modern regimes. The word new distinguishes the era, not the manner.
The title places them at Neapolis. 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.
- Holy Father and New Hieromartyr Gregory of NeapolisHieromartyr — a bishop or priest killed for the faith
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 Neapolis. 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.
- Theodore the Confessor, Bishop of AncyraConfessor — 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.
The title places them at Ancyra. 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 November 3 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on November 16 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.