The Holy Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes, and Eugraphus suffered for their faith in Christ under the emperor Maximian (305-313). Saint Menas was sent by the emperor from Athens to Alexandria to suppress the riots that had arisen between the Christians and the pagans. Distinguished for his gift of…

Saint Joasaph was born at Proluka, in the former Poltava governance, on September 8, 1705, the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. He was descended from the old and venerable Little Russian (Ukrainian) lineage of the Gorlenkovi. At Baptism he was named Joachim. In 1712, his father…

The Holy Martyr Gemellus of Paphlagonia was subjected to cruel tortures for his staunch denunciation of the emperor Juilan the Apostate (361-363) in the city of Ancyra (Galatia). A red-hot iron belt was placed around his waist. Then he was ordered to accompany the impious Julian on his journey.…

Saint Thomas Dephourkinos was born in Bithynia. From his youth he was fond of monastic life and entered one of the area monasteries. Later in his life, when the Byzantine official Galoliktos had founded a monastery at the River Sagarisa, Saint Thomas was already an experienced monk, and the…

Saint Stephen Brankovic (Branković) (October 9 and December 10), the Despot of Serbia, was born in 1417, and belonged to the Branković dynasty. In 1441 he was blinded by order of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, and so when his father died in 1456, he could not claim the throne; so his younger…

Saint Leontios (Leóntios) was born in Monemvasia in the Pelopónnēsos. His parents were Andrew and Theodora, and he received the name Leon at his Baptism. His father was sufficiently wealthy and a prominent man. Emperor Andronikos II Palaiológos (1283 – 1328) gave him an important position in…