Clockwise from top left: St. Cecilia; St. John the Dwarf; St. Edmund, King of East Anglia, England’s Original Patron Saint; St. Andrew the Holy Apostle, Patron Saint of Scotland; Great-Martyr Katherine the All-Wise of Alexandria; and St. Willibrord (Clement), Apostle of the Frisians.
By Walt Garlington
♱ St. Gwyddfarch, Hermit of Moel yr Ancr (+6th century), 3/16 November
One of the many monks and nuns of the West who sanctified their lands by their holy acts and unceasing prayers. A number of ascetics chose the tops of hills. One such was the hermit and monastic founder St Gwyddfarch. From Trallwng Gwyddfarch set out into rather wilder country to the North East and settled in the Vyrnwy Valley near to the present-day village of Meifod. Above this valley is a solitary, steep-sided hill and it was close to the summit of this that Gwyddfarch built his cell, lived and finally died. It was here that he was buried and he is still there to this day. The hill is now known as Moel yr Ancr (the bald hill of the anchorite). Looking at the setting today it is astonishingly beautiful and pastoral and shows little signs of being a desert. In winter, however, when there is a cold East wind one can better appreciate that living on the top of that hill surrounded by wolf-infested woods was hard, cold and uncomfortable – not so far off the deserts of North Africa!
Source
♱ The Innumerable Martyrs of Saragossa, (+304 A.D.), 3/16 November
An exceedingly large number of martyrs put to death in Saragossa under Diocletian by the savage prefect Dacian, who had been sent to Spain to enforce the decrees. He published an edict exiling all Orthodox from the city, and while they were leaving he ordered the soldiers to fall upon and massacre them. Eighteen of them are honoured separately on April 16.
Source
♱ St. Rumwold, the Holy Infant-Confessor of Buckingham, 3/16 November
St. Rumwold (other forms of his name are Rumwald, Rumbold, Rumbald, Rumoalde) is a mystery-saint and a true wonder. In world Orthodox hagiography there are numerous examples of saints who were children and adolescents and have been greatly venerated over the centuries. But hardly any newly-born babies, who lived only for a few days (and were not martyred), are venerated as saints by the Church. One of these unique saints is the holy prince and infant Rumwold who lived in seventh-century England. Not only was Rumwold recognized as a saint, thanks to him many inhabitants of early and late medieval England came to believe in Christ, and his popular veneration was nearly nationwide.
The retelling of his life continues here.
Another version
“Troparion, Tone 4″
Great is thy confession, O holy infant,
and great as our wonder is our praise of thee.
Glorious is thine utterance, O giver of wisdom,
and glorious the Spirit from Whom thy wisdom hath come down.
O Holy Rumwold,
intercede with Christ God, that He may save the souls that He hath made.
Source, together with a full service to St. Rumwold
♱ St. Winifred (+7th century), 3/16 November
Born in Wales and a niece of St Beuno, she was beheaded by a prince for refusing his advances. A spring of water gushed forth where her head had fallen. This was the origin of her holy well which has been a centre of pilgrimage ever since.
Source
A fuller account of her life and her holy well
♱ St. Illtyd, Teacher of the Welsh (+505), 6/19 November
One of the most famous saints in Wales. He became a monk with St. Cadoc and later founded the monastery of Llan-IlItut or Llantwit, from where came most of the Welsh saints of that period. By tradition he reposed in Brittany.
Source
A fuller account of his life
♱ St. Willibrord (Clement), Apostle of the Frisians, 7/20 November
Born in Northumbria, he went to Ireland. From there he went to Friesland in Holland (c 690) accompanied by eleven other monks from England. Six years later he was consecrated bishop with the name of Clement and he founded his Cathedral in Utrecht. His work with the Frisians bore much fruit, as also in Heligoland and Denmark. He founded the monastery of Echternach in Luxembourg in 698 where his relics remain.
Source
For a fuller account of his life: longer; shorter.
♱ St. John the Dwarf, 9/22 November
One of the renowned Desert Fathers of Africa, a wonderful example of obedience and humility.
His life is recounted here.
♱ St. Martin the Merciful of Tours, France; One of the Greatest Saints of the West (+397), 11/24 November
Born in Upper Pannonia (now Hungary), he was the son of a Roman officer. At the age of fifteen he enrolled in the imperial cavalry. In Amiens in France, where he was posted, he cut his cloak in half and gave his own half to a beggar. This beggar turned out to be Christ. This led to his baptism. He left the army and placed himself in the hands of St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, living for ten years as a hermit and founding a monastery in Ligugé. In 372 he was made Bishop of Tours, but he accepted the office with great reluctance. Founding another monastic centre in Marmoutier, he continued to live as a monk, while publicly he devoted himself to his episcopal duties. He opposed Arianism and Priscillianism, but befriended Priscillianists when they were persecuted by the civil authorities. He was the greatest monk in the West of the age and hundreds of churches were dedicated to him. His shrine in Tours was and still is a resort of Orthodox pilgrims.
Source
For a fuller account of his illustrious life
For his biography written by his contemporary Sulpitius Severus, On the Life of St. Martin
Further writings by Sulpitius about St. Martin, “Concerning the Virtues of St. Martin”: Part 1; Part 2
“Kontakion, Tone 8”
As a devoted man of God, you proclaimed His mysteries,
and as a seer of the Trinity, you shed your blessings on the Occident.
By your prayers and entreaties, O adornment of Tours and glory of all the Church,
preserve us, O Saint Martin, and save all who praise your memory.
Source
For his close ties to Louisiana
♱ St. Machar of Aberdeen (+6th century), 12/25 November
A native of Ireland, who, after being baptised by St. Colman of Lindisfarne (18th February), became a disciple of St. Columba of Iona (9th June), joining him on his journey to Iona, as one of the band of Irish monks who played an integral role in the Enlightening of Scotland. At Iona, St. Machar was consecrated bishop and, accompanied by twelve monks, sent to the northeast where they laboured to enlighten the Picts. His efforts bore much fruit.
Source
A fuller account of his life
♱ St. Dyfrig of Wales (+545), 14/27 November
One of the founders of monastic life in Wales. His main monastic centres were at Henllan and Moccas. However, he founded many other monasteries in Gwent and in England in what is now Herefordshire and the Wye Valley. He had jurisdiction over Caldey Island where he appointed St. Samson abbot and later consecrated him bishop. A late tradition makes him Archbishop of Caerleon. He reposed on the Isle of Bardsey.
Source
A fuller account of his life
♱ St. Eucherius of Lyons (+449), the Lover of the Wilderness, 16/29 November
Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, was a high-born and high-ranking ecclesiastic in the Christian Church of Gaul. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation. Henry Wace ranked him “except perhaps St. Irenaeus the most distinguished occupant of that see.”
The rest about this great adornment of the French Orthodox Church is here.
♱ Sts. Acisclus and Victoria (+304), 17/30 November
Brother and sister, they were born in Cordoba in Spain and were martyred, probably under Diocletian. Their home was turned into a church. They are the main patron-saints of Cordoba and were venerated throughout Spain and the south of France.
Source
♱ St. Gregory of Tours, 17/30 November
A member of a Gallo-Roman aristocratic family, related to at least a dozen prelates, one of the most important historians of his era, theologian, and nineteenth Bishop of Tours. St. Gregory is the main contemporary source for Merovingian history. His most notable work was his Decem Libri Historiarumor (Ten Books of Histories), often referred to as Historia Francorum (History of the Franks) by later writers. St. Gregory also wrote several volumes on the miracles of St. Martin of Tours (11th November). During his time as bishop, He oversaw an increase in the number of churches, restored the church of St. Perpetuus (8th April), and rebuilt the Cathedral of Saint-Maurice (of the Theban Legion 22nd September), which had been burnt down in 561. After an episcopacy of twenty-one years, St. Gregory reposed in 594.
Source
Fuller accounts of his life: here and here.
To read his excellent “Life of the Fathers” about the early ascetics of Gaul/France, along with very helpful introductory material by Fr. Seraphim Rose of blessed memory, click here or here.
♱ St. Hilda of Whitby, “The Mother of All England,” 17/30 November
Born in Northumbria, she was a relative of King Edwin. Baptised as a child by St. Paulinus in 631, at the age of thirty-three she joined the nuns of Hartlepool in Northumberland where soon after she became abbess. Later she became Abbess of Whitby. Her influence was one of the most decisive factors in uniting the Church in seventh-century England. Five of her monks became bishops.
Source
“St. Hilda, like her contemporaries St. Etheldreda (23rd June) and St. Ebba (25th August), belongs to that monastic company of women of royal birth who exercised a formative influence in the English Church of the seventh century, but she is also a rare example of a spiritual Mother, who received from God the gift of directing not only nuns but monks and bishops as well; for in the Lord Jesus there is neither male nor female, but a new creation (Gal. 3:28).” — The Synaxarion.
Source
A fuller account of her life
A service for the Saint
♱ St. Edmund, King of East Anglia; England’s Original Patron Saint, 20 November/3 December
King of East Anglia and first patron-saint of England. In 869 he was taken prisoner by the heathen Danes and savagely martyred at Hoxne in Suffolk. He died with the name of Jesus on his lips. Bury St Edmunds was named after him.
Source
A much fuller account of the life of this important Saint
♱ St. Cecilia and Those Martyred with Her at Rome (+2nd-3rd century), 22 November/5 December
St. Cecilia was a member of an important Roman patrician family, who had vowed perpetual virginity to God. Her parents married her to a pagan, St. Valerian (14th April), whom St. Cecilia not only convinced to respect her virginity, but converted him to Christianity as well. Soon after Valerian’s brother, St. Tiburtius was baptised, and the two brothers then dedicated their lives to giving proper burials to Christian martyrs. This resulted in their arrest and martyrdom. St. Cecilia buried them at her villa, for which she was arrested, ordered to perform pagan sacrifices, and when she refused was beheaded. St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians.
Source
For a fuller account of their lives
♱ St. Columbanus of Luxeuil (+ 7th century), 23 November/6 December
A beautiful light adorning the West; his prayers, poems, miracles, and monasteries helped establish Christianity in Western Europe.
A full biography of St. Columbanus written by the Monk Jonas shortly after his repose may be read here. The relics of St. Columbanus still rest in the crypt of the monastery he founded in Bobbio, Italy. A picture of his tomb is here.
♱ Great-Martyr Katherine the All-Wise of Alexandria, Egypt, 25 November/8 December
The Holy Great Martyr Katherine was the daughter of Konstos, the governor of Alexandria, Egypt during the reign of Emperor Maximian (305-313). Living in the capital, the center of Hellenistic knowledge, and possessed of a rare beauty and intellect, Katherine received an excellent education, studying the works of the greatest philosophers and teachers of antiquity. Young men from the most worthy families of the empire sought the hand of the beautiful Katherine, but she was not interested in any of them. She told her parents that she would enter into marriage only with someone who surpassed her in nobility, wealth, comeliness and wisdom.
Katherine’s mother, a secret Christian, sent her to her own Spiritual Father, a saintly Elder living in a cave outside the city, for advice. After listening to Katherine, the Elder said that he knew of someone who surpassed her in everything. “His countenance is more radiant than the shining of the sun, and all of creation is governed by His wisdom. His riches are given to all the nations of the world, yet they never diminish. His compassion is unequaled.”
This description of the Heavenly Bridegroom produced an ardent desire in the soul of the holy maiden to see Him. “If you do as I tell you,” said the monk, “you will gaze upon the countenance of this illustrious man.” …
The rest of her extraordinary life and glorious martyrdom are recounted here.
“Troparion, Tone 4”
By your virtues, as with the rays of the sun, you enlightened the pagan sages;
and like the brightest moon for those who walk at night,
you drove away the darkness of unbelief, and led the Empress to faith;
you also rebuked the tyrant, and you were called by God as His bride, O blessed Katherine.
With love you ascended to the heavenly Bridal Chamber of the most comely Bridegroom Christ,
by Whom you were crowned with a royal crown.
Now standing before Him with the Angels, pray for us who honor your holy memory.
Source
♱ St. Andrew the Holy Apostle, Patron Saint of Scotland, 30 November/13 December
By the sixth century St. Andrew was revered universally, veneration for him having spread to Western Europe. In England he was especially honoured at Rochester and Hexham. However, even before this, in the fourth century a saint much honoured in Scotland, St. Regulus, had been admonished by an angel to take a small portion of St. Andrew’s relics from Patras to an unknown destination “in the north-west.” St. Regulus kept on travelling until he reached Fife in Scotland. Here he built a church to house the relics of the Apostle, which came to be called St. Andrews. This became a centre of pilgrimage and evangelisation. The cross on which St. Andrew had been crucified soon became Scotland’s national emblem and today, as a white saltire on a deep blue background, it forms the Scottish national flag.
Source
Close to 800 churches were dedicated to St Andrew in Scotland in the Middle Ages. The X-shaped Cross of St Andrew is the inspiration for the familiar Southern battle flag.
Source
The missionary journeys of St. Andrew.
Shorter
Longer: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
♱ St. Frumentius, First Bishop of Ethiopia, 30 November/13 December
During the reign of St. Constantine the Great, an explorer named Meropus set out to explore lands along the Red Sea, previously unknown to the Roman world. The expedition’s ship was attacked by pirates and all the company killed except two young men named Frumentius and Edesius. They were sold into slavery in the court of the Ethiopian King of Axum, where they distinguished themselves so well that they became palace stewards and were able to obtain freedom of Christian worship for merchants trading in the Kingdom.
Eventually the young men returned to Roman territory, and Frumentius went to St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria to tell him of his travels and of the great thirst of the Ethiopian people for the Gospel of Christ. Saint Athanasius consecrated Frumentius as first Bishop of Abyssinia and sent him back to Axum to establish the Church in that kingdom.
Through his apostolic zeal, tireless travels, and miracles and healings, the holy Bishop was able convert many pagans and establish many churches in Ethiopia, though the Kingdom did not become officially Christian until the sixth century. Saint Frumentius reposed in peace in his adopted country, and his relics worked many miracles.
Source
For complete lists of Orthodox saints of our Southern forefathers of Africa and Western Europe for October, visit Dr. John Hutchison-Hall and Fr. Andrew Phillips’ Orthodox England.
Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer and editor of the website Confiteri: A Southern Perspective. This longtime Southern Baptist, then Anglican, was united to the Orthodox Church in 2012 and makes his home in Louisiana where he attends a GOA parish.
