Polyeleos. Kept with the Polyeleos at Matins.
Commemorated today
- Holy New Martyrs Juvenaly and Peter the Aleut of Alaska (1796, 1815)New Martyr — killed under Ottoman or modern persecution life on this site
The lives we have written
Holy Martyr Peter the Aleut
An Alutiiq Orthodox Christian taken captive in Spanish California refused to abandon the faith he had received in Alaska; the surviving evidence is incomplete, but at its centre stands an Indigenous witness who reported his companion’s steadfast death.
- Era
- Died in 1815
- Region
- Kodiak and coastal California
- Category
- Indigenous layman, martyr, and protomartyr of the Pacific coast
- Feast
- September 24, with the Synaxis of All Saints of Alaska
Holy Hieromartyr Juvenaly of Alaska
One of the first monks sent to Russian Alaska disappeared while carrying the Gospel beyond Kodiak; the Church remembers him as America’s first Orthodox martyr, while Yup’ik oral history helps correct a written record once corrupted by fabrication.
- Era
- 1761–1796
- Region
- Siberia, Kodiak, south-central Alaska, and probably the lower Kuskokwim region
- Category
- Hieromonk, missionary, and protomartyr of America
- Feast
- September 24, with the Synaxis of All Saints of Alaska
- Holy Protomartyr Thecla, Equal to the Apostles (1st century)Apostle · 1st century
What is known
An apostle was sent. The word covers the Twelve, the Seventy whom Christ sent ahead of him, and a few others the New Testament names in the same office.
The year given is the 1st 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.
- St Silouan, elder of Mt Athos (1938) (September 11 OC)d. 1938 life on this site
The life we have written
Venerable Silouan the Athonite
An uneducated Russian labourer entered an Athonite monastery and became a teacher of humility, repentance, and prayer for the whole world—especially for those whom fear or anger calls enemies.
- Era
- 1866–1938
- Region
- Tambov, Russia, and Mount Athos
- Category
- Monk, ascetic, and teacher of prayer
- Feast
- September 24
- St Stephen, First-crowned King of Serbia (Simon the Monk) (1224)Monastic · d. 1224
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 them at Serbia. The year given is 1224.
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.
- The Commemoration of the Miracle of the Theotokos Myrtidiotissis in Kythyra
What is known
The title places it at Kythyra. Kept in the Greek tradition.
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.
- Stephen the MartyrMartyr
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.
- The Most Holy Theotokos of Palianis
What is known
The title places them at Palianis. 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.
- Coprios the RighteousRighteous
What is known
The righteous are lay men and women commemorated for holiness in ordinary life rather than for martyrdom or monastic vows.
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
- Isaiah 43:9–14
- Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9
- Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3 continues in 6
- Luke 12:2–12
- Romans 8:28–39
- Luke 21:12–19
- 2 Timothy 3:10–15
- Luke 10:38–42, 11:27–28
About this page. This is the Menaion date — the fixed calendar. Parishes on the New Calendar keep it on September 24 by the civil calendar. On the Julian calendar this same commemoration is kept on October 7 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.