Meals for the Soul

Orthodox Saints

One hundred lives

Not spiritual celebrities and not distant moral heroes — real people, in particular centuries and particular trouble, in whom the grace of God became visible.

What is a saint?

The Church does not make anyone holy by awarding a title. She recognises holiness that God has already worked, and says so publicly, so that the rest of us can learn from it and ask for their prayers.

So a saint is not a person who managed to be good. Several of the hundred below were murderers, thieves, persecutors or frauds before they were anything else. What they have in common is not achievement but response: at some point each of them stopped resisting God, and the difference showed. Their holiness is His, not theirs, and it is on loan to them the way light is on loan to a window.

Orthodox Christians do not worship the saints. Worship belongs to God alone. We honour them, and we ask them to pray — the same thing you would ask of a friend, asked of people whom death has not removed from the Body of Christ.

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Featured life

The Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

The young woman who answered God with her whole life—and became the living doorway through which the Saviour entered His creation.

First century · Dormition, August 15

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New to the saints? Start here

Twelve lives, in an order that moves from the Gospel through martyrdom, repentance, mercy and mission to the present day.

  1. The Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary — Mother of God
  2. Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John — prophet and martyr
  3. Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene — myrrhbearer and witness of the Resurrection
  4. Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer of Antioch — apostolic father and martyr
  5. Anthony the Great — father of monasticism
  6. Mary of Egypt — penitent ascetic
  7. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra — hierarch and defender of the vulnerable
  8. Herman of Alaska — monk, missionary, and protector of the Aleut people
  9. Righteous Martyr Maria of Paris (in preparation) — nun, theologian, rescuer, and martyr
  10. Silouan the Athonite (in preparation) — monk and teacher of humility and prayer for the world
  11. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (in preparation) — priest, spiritual father, and wonderworker
  12. Righteous Mother Olga of Kwethluk (in preparation) — Yup'ik wife, mother, matushka, and wonderworker

All one hundred

Innocent of Alaska and Moscow

Missionary bishop, linguist, and apostle to North America

1797–1879 · March 31 and October 6

Profile in preparation

Hieromartyr Juvenaly of Iliamna

Missionary and first Orthodox martyr in America

Died 1796 · September 24 with the Synaxis of Alaska

Profile in preparation

Martyr Peter the Aleut

Indigenous Orthodox martyr

Died 1815 · September 24 with the Synaxis of Alaska

Profile in preparation

Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Enlightener of North America

Missionary hierarch and confessor

1865–1925 · April 7 and October 9

Profile in preparation

Nicholas of Japan

Missionary, translator, and Equal-to-the-Apostles

1836–1912 · February 16

Profile in preparation

Raphael of Brooklyn

Syrian-born bishop and shepherd of Orthodox Christians in North America

1860–1915 · February 27

Profile in preparation

Alexis Toth

Priest and confessor who brought many communities into Orthodoxy

1853–1909 · May 7

Profile in preparation

Nikolaj of Žiča

Serbian hierarch, theologian, and missionary in America

1881–1956 · March 5

Profile in preparation

Mardarije of Libertyville

Serbian bishop and church-builder in North America

1889–1935 · December 12

Profile in preparation

Arseny of Winnipeg

Missionary bishop, preacher, and monastic founder in Canada

1866–1945 · October 4 with the Synaxis of North American Hierarchs

Profile in preparation

Seraphim of Sarov

Monastic elder and teacher of the life in the Holy Spirit

1754–1833 · January 2

Profile in preparation

Silouan the Athonite

Monk and teacher of humility and prayer for the world

1866–1938 · September 24

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Sophrony of Essex

Athonite elder, theologian, and monastic founder

1896–1993 · July 11

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Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

Priest, spiritual father, and wonderworker

1906–1991 · December 2

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Paisios the Athonite

Monastic elder and spiritual father

1924–1994 · July 12

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Righteous Martyr Maria of Paris

Nun, theologian, rescuer, and martyr

1891–1945 · July 20

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Martyr Alexander Schmorell of Munich

Physician, White Rose resister, and martyr

1917–1943 · July 13

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Priestmartyr Dimitri Klepinin

Priest, rescuer, and martyr

1904–1944 · July 20

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Gabriel the Confessor and Fool-for-Christ of Georgia

Monk and confessor

1929–1995 · November 2

Profile in preparation

Righteous Mother Olga of Kwethluk

Yup'ik wife, mother, matushka, and wonderworker

1916–1979 · October 27

Profile in preparation

On dates and spellings. Feast dates follow common North American usage. Parishes on the Julian calendar keep the same fixed feasts on a different civil date, several saints have more than one commemoration, and spellings differ between jurisdictions. Where a difference matters, the profile says so rather than pretending one calendar is universal.

A note. These lives are written to introduce, not to direct. Ascetic feats described here belong to particular people under obedience, not to a method anyone should take up alone. Anything touching your own rule of prayer or fasting belongs with your priest or spiritual father.

Why this is here

These lives are built the same way the books are: traceable sources, later tradition labelled as later tradition, and anything that could not be verified left out rather than repeated because it preaches well.

How that rule works →