Orthodox Calendar, December 9 Saint Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary She was the youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi. She married Saint Joachim (September 9), who was a native of Galilee. For a long time Saint Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the…
Orthodox Calendar, December 8 Saint Patapius He was born at Thebes into a pious Christian family. Reaching the age of maturity, he scorned the vanities of the world and so went into the Egyptian desert where he became known for his ascetic deeds. Though he wished to dwell in silence, people began to come to…
Orthodox Calendar, December 7 Saint Philothea (Philofthea) of Argeş She was born in Trnovo, the old capital of Bulgaria, around 1206. Her father was a farmer, and her mother was from Wallachia. She died when Philothea was still a child, and her father remarried. The child was often punished by her stepmother, who accused her…
Orthodox Calendar, December 6 Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. He was born in the city of Patara in the region of Lycia (on the south coast of the Asia Minor peninsula) and was the only son of pious parents Theophanes…
Orthodox Calendar, December 5 Saint Sava the Sanctified He was born in the fifth century at Cappadocia of pious Christian parents, John and Sophia. His father was a military commander. Journeying to Alexandria on military matters, John and Sophia left their five-year-old son Sava in the care of an uncle. When the boy reached eight…
Orthodox Calendar December 4 Holy Great Martyr Barbara She lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioscorus, was a rich and illustrious man in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to his only daughter. Seeing Barbara’s extraordinary beauty, Dioscorus…
Orthodox Calendar December 3 Saint George of Cernica He was born in 1730, and became a monk on Mount Athos when he was a young man. He was a disciple of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky (November 15) who was then the igumen of Vatopedi Monastery.Since the skete at Cernica had been deserted for almost thirty years,…
Orthodox Calendar, December 2 Saints Cleopas and Paisius of Sihăstria Venerable and God-bearing Father Paisie of Sihăstria was born on 20 June 1897 in the village of Stroești, Botoșani County, into the Christian family of Ioan and Ecaterina Olaru, who were blessed by God with ten children. Born near the feast of the Holy Apostles…
Orthodox Calendar December 1 Saint Anastasia, the Mother of Saint Andrew Șaguna, Metropolitan of Transylvania Blessed Anastasia was born in 1785 to faithful parents, Aromanian merchants from Macedonia who had settled in Miskolc, Hungary. Raised in the fear of God, in honour and in the Orthodox faith, she married Naum, the son of a merchant…
Orthodox Calendar November 30 †) Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, Protector of Romania He was the first of the Apostles to follow Christ, and he later brought his own brother, the holy Apostle Peter, to Christ (John 1:35-42). The future apostle was from Bethsaida, and from his youth he turned with all his soul to…
Orthodox Calendar November 29 Martyr Paramon in Bithynia Holy Martyr Paramon and the 370 Martyrs with him suffered for their faith in Christ in the year 250 during the rule of the emperor Decius (249-251). The governor of the Eastern regions, Aquianus, had locked up 370 Christians in prison, urging them to abjure Christ and…
