St. Fulgentius of Ruspe

Joyous feast!

Today we celebrate the memory of our Holy Father Fulgentius of Ruspe. St. Fulgentius was a monastic father of the Church in North Africa. Born and raised in the formerly Roman province of Byzacena (now eastern Tunisia), after embracing the monastic life as an adult the Saint struggled as an ascetic in Byzacena, Mauretania (now Algeria), and Sicily, co-founding monasteries in Byzacena and Mauretania before founding his own monastery in Byzacena, from which he retreated to live as a hermit.

In the early 500s the Orthodox in North Africa decided to secretly rebel against their Arian rulers by electing new bishops for the many vacant sees in the region. St. Fulgentius was nominated for several sees and fled into hiding. The Saint, thinking that all of the vacant sees had been filled, eventually came out of hiding in the town of Ruspe, where he was promptly made bishop of the city, which had been unable to choose a bishop due to the lack of a suitable candidate.

Enduring exile in Sardinia for his witness to the Orthodox Faith, St. Fulgentius was later summoned to Carthage by the Arian ruler of North Africa to give an explanation of the Apostolic Faith on behalf of the North African episcopate, much of which had also been exiled to Sardinia. While in Carthage the Saint reconciled many of the city's inhabitants to Orthodoxy and consequently was sent back into exile, only returning to Africa in 523 after the death of the Arian ruler then enthroned in Carthage.

Returning to Ruspe, St. Fulgentius took up his shepherding of the Orthodox there, ensuring that his clergy did not adorn themselves and that they celebrated the services with attention while also encouraging the monastic life and exhorting his flock to greater fasting and holiness of life. After a brief retirement to the island of Circe the Saint fell asleep on this day in 533 at the age of sixty-five.

May St. Fulgentius' blessing and prayers be with us all! More on his life may be found here.

St. Lawrence the Archdeacon

Joyous feast! Today we celebrate the Holy Martyr Lawrence the Archdeacon of Rome and his companions, Pope Sixtus, the Deacons Felicissimus and Agapetus, and Romanus the Soldier. Pope Sixtus was enthroned on the Roman cathedra at a time of persecution and was arrested not long after his election, being imprisoned with two of his deacons. In jail St. Lawrence visited the confessors and begged to be allowed to join them St. Sixtus told him to wait, for in three days God would given him a greater trial and martyrdom than he and his deacons would endure.

At Pope St. Sixtus' trial it was revealed that St. Lawrence had distributed the Papacy's monies to the poor, per St. Sixtus' instructions, and the Saint was arrested and imprisoned. In prison St. Lawrence healed the sick through his prayers and baptized many of those around him, including his jailer Hyppolitus. When he was brought before the Roman Emperor Valerian St. Lawrence asked for three days to gather the Church's treasure for him, after which he presented to the emperor a crowd of the poor and the sick who had been helped out of the Church's charity.

The emperor handed St. Lawrence over to brutal tortures, having him scourged with an iron flail, burned, and struck with metal switches. One of his torturers, the soldier Romanus, was converted by a vision of an angel healing some of the Saint's wounds and later baptized when St. Lawrence was returned to jail. At the last St. Lawrence was placed in an iron cage and burned alive in it, praying to his God, saying, "I thank You, O Lord Jesus Christ, that You have counted me worthy to enter into Your gates!"

After the Saint had given up his spirit his former jailer, Hyppolitus, took his relics in the night, anointed them with ointments, and gave them into the care of a priest of the city, who served the Holy Mass over them and then buried them in a cave. Three days later St. Hyppolitus the Jailer and his companions were also martyred for the Orthodox Faith. The Holy Archdeacon Lawrence and the other Holy Roman Martyrs before and after him suffered in 258.

More on St. Lawrence's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Augustine of Hippo

Joyous feast! St. Augustine was born in the Berber territory of Numidia, then the Roman province of Africa and now divided between Algeria and Tunisia, in 354 and was raised by his devout mother, St. Monica, who eventually sent him to ancient Carthage to further his studies.

The Saint, then a Manichean, eventually became a professor of rhetoric and moved to Milan to teach in the late 300s. In Milan St. Augustine met the great St. Ambrose and was converted to Orthodoxy, giving away his worldly possessions to the poor to become a monk.

In 391 St. Augustine was ordained a priest and, four years later, consecrated to the episcopacy and after some time as an auxiliary was in 395 elected Bishop of Hippo in Numidia. During his 35 years as a bishop St. Augustine wrote his famous Confessions as well as many works combating the various heresies besetting the Church at that time.

St. Augustine fell asleep during the Vandal siege of his see in 430 at the age of seventy-six. More on his life can be found here and here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Dunstan of Canterbury

Christ is risen!!! Joyous feast! St. Dunstan is one of the lights of the Roman Orthodox Church in England. He successively lived as a monk in Glastonbury and (Ghent in the Netherlands), served as a royal counselor in England, became Bishop of Worcester in 957, and finally was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 961. He takes much of the credit for the revival of monasticism in 10th century England and fell asleep peacefully in Canterbury in 988. More on St. Dunstan's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Monica of Tagaste

Christ is risen! Joyous feast! St. Monica was the mother of one of the great Fathers of the Orthodox West, St. Augustine of Hippo, and her prayers are credited with bringing him to faith. More on her life can be found here. May her blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Rupert of Salzburg

Joyous feast! St. Rupert was the enlightener of what today is Bavaria and Austria who also founded the modern city of Salzburg on the ruins of an old Roman town. St. Rupert fell asleep in 710 and is widely venerated in both Austria and Bavaria. More on his life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria

Joyous feast! The story of Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria isn't particularly well known outside the East, but it's a beautiful one and can be found here. May their blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Benedict of Nursia

Joyous feast! St. Benedict was one of the great organizers of monasticism in the Orthodox West, parallel to Sts. Anthony the Great and Basil the Great in the East, and is therefore known as the 'Patriarch of Western Monasticism.' His rule continues to be followed today by several Roman Catholic monastic orders as well as by Western Orthodox monastics under the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. More on his life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Gregory the Great

Joyous feast! Pope St. Gregory the Great of Rome was one of the great lights of the Church of the West and many continue to read his writings throughout the Orthodox world. He is so esteemed in the East that a service, the Presanctified Liturgy, is attributed to him, while the West remembers him as the last great reformer of the Mass of the Roman Rite, whose last significant changes in form and content took place during his papacy. More on his life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Brahmavar Orthodoxy and St. Julius of Goa

A fascinating survey of the life of St. Julius of Goa, the first Orthodox Christian of the Roman Rite to be glorified since the Great Schism of 1054 and a metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Church, and his flock in Goa can be found here.

Pictured is a painting of St. Julius, enthroned as Metropolitan Mor Julius Alvares of Ceylon, Goa, and India (outside Kerala), in West Syrian-style vestments.

St. Sebastian the Martyr

Joyous feast! St. Sebastian was one of the more widely venerated martyrs of the Roman Empire from the period prior to its conversion to Orthodoxy. A native of what today is France, St. Sebastian was educated in Milan and later rose to serve as the commander of the Praetorian Guard. The Emperor Diocletian loved him and did not know of his Christian faith, only later discovering it and martyring him when he refused to abandon it. More on his life can be found here. May his blessings and prayers be with us all!