Commemoration. A commemoration with its own hymns at Vespers.
Commemorated today
- Prophet JoelProphet
What is known
A prophet in the Orthodox calendar is almost always one of the Old Testament prophets, commemorated by the Church that reads them as speaking of Christ.
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.
- Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt (1908).Wonderworker · d. 1908 life on this site
The life we have written
Saint John of Kronstadt
Serving a naval city marked by poverty, addiction, and displacement, John placed the Eucharist at the centre of parish life and insisted that no person in a cellar or tenement was a stranger to Christ.
- Era
- 1829–1908
- Region
- Northern Russia and Kronstadt near Saint Petersburg
- Category
- Married priest, pastor, spiritual writer, and wonderworker
- Feast
- December 20
- Relics Venerable John of RilaMonastic
What is known
A monastic — the calendar usually says venerable — lived under vows: a monk, nun, hermit, abbot or abbess. This is the largest single group in the Menaion, and for most of them the monastery is the whole of what is recorded.
The title places it at Rila.
What is kept today is this event in particular rather than the whole life behind it, and of that life no account survives here that could be checked.
- Holy Martyr Varus and those with him (304)Martyr · d. 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 year given is 304.
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.
- Holy Hieromartyr Sadoth (Shahdost) and his 128 companions (342)Hieromartyr — a bishop or priest killed for the faith · d. 342
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 year given is 342.
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.
- Felix the Hieromartyr & Eusebius the DeaconHieromartyr — 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.
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 October 19 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on November 1 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.