Honoring our saint's name

[Amy]

As I continue to learn about living the Orthodox life, I wonder how others honor their saint's name in everyday living. ? My priest speaks my saint's name (St. Brigid) when I receive the Eucharist and she is honored in my home through prayers, her cross (style) and I enjoy reading about her.

How else can I honor St. Brigid? When someone asks your christian name, do you use your saint's name?

[Paul Cowan]

How else can I honor St. Brigid? When someone asks your christian name, do you use your saint's name?

Hi Amy,

My Saint's name is rather easy for me to remember. I was born with it. ;)

How do we honor them? We live into them. We try to emmulate them and their behavior. We become so much them Christ will see them thru us. I think I have the biggest shoes to fill of anyone. Most days I put on sandals.

How disappointing I must be to him...

Paul

[Father Anthony]

My patron saint's name is also my legal name.

Aside from that, there are a number of ways you can honor your patron saint. You have already stated that you have have read her life. From time to time an akathist or paraclesis can be offered in her honor. Another Orthodox tradition in which the focus is technically not on you, but rather your patron saint is keeping her feast or name's day.

How I personally do this tradition (mind you in most circumstances as a priest it makes it somewhat easier) is that I have Orthros and Divine Liturgy on the feast itself. I would have celebrated vespers the evening before (I serve vespers daily). I then treat my staff out for a luncheon in honor of my patron saint. Later on in the day, I prepare a large meal that I serve personally to a group of children. I bring an icon of my patron saint to the meal, and sing the apolytikion to him as part of the prayers before the meal. The emphasis again is not on the person that bears the saints name as a birthday would be celebrated but rather the focus is in honor of your patron saint.

I hope this spurs some ideas for you and that other may add to it.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

[Trudy]

How else can I honor St. Brigid? When someone asks your christian name, do you use your saint's name?

Most people cannot even say my patron saint's name! :-) He is St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria. My "Orthodox" name is Athanasia. In the Greek fashion it is pronounced: Ah-thon-a-see-ya. In the Russian fashion, which is how my spiritual father and spiritual big brother pronounce it: Ath-a-nah-see-ah.

Yes, it is unusual for a woman to have a male patron saint but the more I prayed, the more pronounced St. Athanasius became in my heart and the more I loved him. He truly chose me. Not the reverse. Being received in the Greek tradition, my priest said this was perfectly fine. I do not know about anywhere else.

I would LOVE to use my Orthodox name all the time but it is just not feasible. Not only is it a mouthful, I highly doubt anyone would really understand. So Trudy is it! Or as my best friends say, "Trude!"

In Christ,
Trudy (aka Athanasia)

[Olga]

It is very common in the Greek tradition for a woman to have a male saint as patron, the reverse is less common, but a few examples exist, such as Chrysovalantis (male) named after St Irene of Cappadocia, better known as St Irene Chrysovalantou, as she was abbess of the Chrysovalantou Monastery near Constantinople.

In the Slavic tradition, the gender of the person is the same as the patron saint. Hence, for example, the names Georgia or Georgina are quite common among Greeks, but virtually unknown in Russia or other Slavic lands.

... and a tiny correction on pronunciation (sorry, I can't help myself...): Russians would say Afanasiya, as there is no th sound in this language. The th is rendered as f, so Matthew becomes Matfey, Theodore becomes Fyodor, etc.

[Trudy]

... and a tiny correction on pronunciation (sorry, I can't help myself...): Russians would say Afanasiya, as there is no th sound in this language. The th is rendered as f, so Matthew becomes Matfey, Theodore becomes Fyodor, etc.

Oh I am glad you shared this tiny correction! Thank you! I did not know that. Perhaps I shall need to correct my priest....giggle :)

Athanasiya

[Amy]

Father Anthony:

I then treat my staff out for a luncheon in honor of my patron saint. Later on in the day, I prepare a large meal that I serve personally to a group of children. I bring an icon of my patron saint to the meal, and sing the apolytikion to him as part of the prayers before the meal. The emphasis again is not on the person that bears the saints name as a birthday would be celebrated but rather the focus is in honor of your patron saint.

What a beautiful idea! Thank you for sharing.

And, many thanks to all who shared ideas and thoughts. I especially enjoy learning about the history behind names (and the pronunciation!). Learning of the importance behind the name, as someone said on here: 'living up to that name is difficult' is a fairly new concept to me.

[Amy]

Thinking along those lines, is this why Jesus would give His disciples a new name after they were baptized into Christ? A name that would signify a transformation? A new name to live up to?

[Archbishop Lazar]

It is a great joy to me to see this discussion. In our secular era, people often forget that they have patron saint and saint's day or slava. Bishop Varlaam of Vancouver (retired now) had insisted that on Sundays, the "many years" be sung for everyone who's saint's day had fallen in the previous week. People were encouraged to bring something special for the agape on that Sunday, in honour of their saint. My step-grandson, named for Christos the Gardener, a martyr of the Turkish yoke, made and laminated enough copies of his patron's icon for every member of his parish this past year in order to honour his patron. We Serbs have our Slava with the Slava Litiya as a special way of honouring our family patron. It is especially powerful when I recall that since the 1200's my family have celebrated St. Clement Martyr as the patron of our family (we do not have individual Slavas, but I do celebrate Holy Martyr Lazar of Kosovo, for whom i am named, on Vidovdan).

[Paul Cowan]

[QUOTE=but I do celebrate Holy Martyr Lazar of Kosovo, for whom i am named, on Vidovdan).[/QUOTE]


http://roca.org/OA/15/15f.htm

http://www.sainthermanpress.com/catalog/chapter_five/Lazar_book.htm

Thank you Vladika Lazar for sharing this with us.

[Robert Rager]

My Patron Saints' name is my middle name Thomas, after St. Thomas the Apostle.
I pray the "Prayerful Invocation of the Saint Whose Name we bear", as part of my morning prayers.

At church, it runs about 50-50, as to people addressing me as Thomas, or as Rob.

[Nina]

I pray the "Prayerful Invocation of the Saint Whose Name we bear", as part of my morning prayers.


Where can I find this prayer, please?

[Herman Blaydoe]

We call it the prayer to our name saint:

Pray unto God for me, O Holy Saint (Name), well-pleasing to God: for I turn to you, who are a speedy helper and intercessor for my soul.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

We call it the prayer to our name saint:

Pray unto God for me, O Holy Saint (Name), well-pleasing to God: for I turn to you, who are a speedy helper and intercessor for my soul.

In the Russian tradition this verse is also chanted at a general moleben, except that we say, "us", "we" and "our" instead of "me", "I" and "my".

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Karena Hryniuk]

We call it the prayer to our name saint:

Pray unto God for me, O Holy Saint (Name), well-pleasing to God: for I turn to you, who are a speedy helper and intercessor for my soul.

I have also seen this prayer as being:

Pray to God for me St. ______, in whom the Lord is well pleased. I am happy to imitate your life. You who are quick to pray for my soul.


~Karena

[Kusanagi]

As I continue to learn about living the Orthodox life, I wonder how others honor their saint's name in everyday living. ? My priest speaks my saint's name (St. Brigid) when I receive the Eucharist and she is honored in my home through prayers, her cross (style) and I enjoy reading about her.

How else can I honor St. Brigid? When someone asks your christian name, do you use your saint's name?

How my friend tries to do it she does her best to try and receive Holy Communion. Read an akathist or some other prayer to that saint. give alms.
read the life of the saint.

[Effie Ganatsios]

Here in Greece our namedays are more important than our birthdays.

Early in the morning, even if it's a working day, the person celebrating his nameday goes to morning service, and also receives communion.

Life here has changed as it has changed all over the world, and the wonderful namedays that everybody celebrated are becoming a thing of the past, even if they fall on the weekend when it is easier to celebrate them.

In the past, the priest from your church would come and bless the house, the woman of the house would invite all the close relatives for a midday meal and then in the evening, all the lights including the garden lights would be turned on announcing that everyone is welcome to wish the nameday person well. All the relatives and friends would come to the house to wish the person celebrating his nameday many happy returns of the day. The wish is : na herese tin eorti sou, which means "May your nameday bring you joy". As I already mentioned birthdays are not celebrated, the important event is the fact that you were baptised and given your christian name and this is what is celebrated. Only young children have birthday parties.

Of course, people still celebrate their namedays but the young people, especially, just invite their friends out somewhere and have a good time. It is no longer a wonderful family celebration. This is one of the things that saddens me... things have changed so much in the last 20 years.

Our icons still include our family saints of course. I have one of St. Demetrius and one of St. George - my husband and son. My name, Euterpe, is an ancient greek name and although our priest told me I have a saint, I have not been able to find an icon of her.

Effie

[Kusanagi]

I think because names day is more of a spritual matter so it is more important that birthdays because it is relating to matters of the secular society.

Also Greek people celebrating in a non religious manner has been happening since the time of St Arsenios of Cappadocia.

He didn't like it so he would baptise people with a name that doesn't have a particular feast day like Abraham or Athena.

[Michael Stickles]

My name, Euterpe, is an ancient greek name and although our priest told me I have a saint, I have not been able to find an icon of her.

I admit to curiosity -- have you been able to find anything out about St. Euterpe? I'd never heard of her before. That's a wonderful name - "delight".

Mike

[Florianos]

God bless!!

We can honor our Patron Saint forst with our christian life!!

In the orthodox moring prayers we allways pray to our patron saint!!

Of course we should have an icon of our patron saint with a vigil lamp burning constantly !! you can lit candles, burne incence, bring him/ her flowers, the saints love flowers!

To celebrate the feastday with special splendour( like in serbia with a kolach,cake,and kolyva and wine blessed in his name)

So I think there are many ways to honor our patron saint!!

In CHRIST

[Nina]

Our icons still include our family saints of course. I have one of St. Demetrius and one of St. George - my husband and son. My name, Euterpe, is an ancient greek name and although our priest told me I have a saint, I have not been able to find an icon of her.
Effie

Dear Effie,

Do you celebrate your name-day on the 1st of September? If yes, that is why you can not find an icon of your Patron Saint. She is one of the 40 Virgin Martyrs and they are usually depicted in a group, the same as their holy martyrdom was (like the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia etc.)

You may view a group icon of the 40Holy Virgin Martyrs from the OCA (http://www.oca.org/FSlives.asp)website. Saint Euterpe (Evterpe - that is why Mike, who has the gift of Google did not find her- because of the spelling in Greek. :) I am sure he would have found her otherwise.) is on this group icon: the third martyr from the left of the second row. A longer version of their life and example can be found here (http://www.saintnicodemos.org/articles/christianmartyrdom.php) and is beautiful and so moving.

So instead of having only one saint, maybe it will be even better to get their group icon since that is how they faced martyrdom and you will not have only one saint watching over you but at least 40. Isn't that fantastic and such a blessing?! Or you can have someone make the icon of your patron saint if you prefer.

P.S Also you are so blessed to celebrate on the first day of the ecclesiastical year (if this is the case).

[Effie Ganatsios]

I admit to curiosity -- have you been able to find anything out about St. Euterpe? I'd never heard of her before. That's a wonderful name - "delight".

Mike


Mike, my priest Father Basileos looked it up and told me this saint is celebrated on the 1st of September and is one of the 40 virgins that were martyred, on that date I believe although I am not absolutely sure when they were martyred.

I didn't know the name meant "delight", thank you for telling me this.

The name itself is from Greek mythology. Euterpe was one of the 9 muses. She was the muse of music.

The name situation here is Greece is a little hard for people from other countries to understand. The first four children born in each family are given family names - we are named after our grandparents, which gives us a family line back into antiquity. The first boy is named for the father's father and the first girl for the father's mother. Second boy - mother's father and second girl - mother's mother. Masculine names are given the feminine form and vice versa if the children don't come in the proper order - smile.

Greeks today rarely have more than 2 children so the situation has changed - one for the mother's family and one for the father's family.

The more "modern" women sometimes give their children second christian names that have nothing to do with the family i.e. one woman said she was going to name her daughter Diana for the English princess. Both sides of the family went into shock so she decided she would compromise with the name Constantina Diana.... first name was her m-i-l's name.

I have to admit that I have somehow become old-fashioned and like this tradition because I have my grandmother's name who had her grandmother's name, etc.

So, after my usual long-winded explanation, back to your question.

The only information I have been able to find about St. Euterpe is the above, but, and please forgive me if I am being disrespectful of the Church, as many classical Greek names are included in this general "40 virgins" category I suspect that perhaps the Church lumped all the classical names together so that we, too, would have the honour of having a patron saint.

Effie

[Effie Ganatsios]

Most people cannot even say my patron saint's name! :-) He is St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria. My "Orthodox" name is Athanasia. In the Greek fashion it is pronounced: Ah-thon-a-see-ya. In the Russian fashion, which is how my spiritual father and spiritual big brother pronounce it: Ath-a-nah-see-ah.

Yes, it is unusual for a woman to have a male patron saint but the more I prayed, the more pronounced St. Athanasius became in my heart and the more I loved him. He truly chose me. Not the reverse. Being received in the Greek tradition, my priest said this was perfectly fine. I do not know about anywhere else.

I would LOVE to use my Orthodox name all the time but it is just not feasible. Not only is it a mouthful, I highly doubt anyone would really understand. So Trudy is it! Or as my best friends say, "Trude!"
In Christ,
Trudy (aka Athanasia)

Trudy, here in Greece we say Ah tha nah see ah. The emphasis is on the "see". Beautiful name which means Immortality. The feminine form which is the above is always pronounced in its entirety but the short masculine form of Athanasios is Thanasi.

I suppose we are lucky in that we have only the one name, the one we were born with and baptised with. People here call their babies beba for a girl and bebe for a boy until they are christened and then they will call them by the right name.

Effie

[Michael Stickles]

Mike, my priest Father Basileos looked it up and told me this saint is celebrated on the 1st of September and is one of the 40 virgins that were martyred, on that date I believe although I am not absolutely sure when they were martyred.

Ah - that's why I couldn't find much of anything; the name lists for the 40 martyrs spell it "Evterpi". It also makes sense then why you wouldn't be able to find an individual icon, since the icons would be of all 40 together with Deacon Ammoun. On the icon I've seen, though, it looks like each woman's name is visible above her head, so I wonder if it would be permissible within Orthodox iconography to have an icon made with just her image, copied from the icon of the 40? I have no idea whether that's "kosher" or not.

47

I admit - out of my curiosity I had done a fair bit of Google searching for St. Euterpe, and it's been a long time since I've been that completely defeated by a search. Although, there was one thing I did find: on the website for the Region of Murcia in Spain, on a page about "Celebrations of Moors and Christians of Santomera", in an announcement of a mass of thanksgiving there was a mention that "The mass will be sung by orfeon of Santa Euterpe" (I don't know Spanish, so had to rely on AltaVista's Babel Fish translation service; it didn't recognize orfeon). I guess that means there's probably a Roman Catholic Church dedicated to Saint Euterpe somewhere in or near Santomera, Spain.


The name situation here is Greece is a little hard for people from other countries to understand. The first four children born in each family are given family names - we are named after our grandparents, which gives us a family line back into antiquity.

That's actually something I'm familiar with, though not that exact form. On my mother's side, children are named after elder family members; usually the grandparents for the first children, then aunts or uncles, etc. My first two names, "Michael Allen", come from my maternal and paternal grandparents. It's also what I'm called at family gatherings instead of "Mike"; using first names only gets too confusing (I think our record is 17 Mikes at one reunion).

For myself, though, I've associated my name more with the Archangel Michael since I was very young (about 6 or so). It doesn't seem like I made any decision about it way back then, more like it was made for me (or maybe revealed to me), and that felt association stayed with me even through the time when I wasn't sure that I believed in Christ. So, there's no question who my "patron saint" would be.

In Christ,
Mike

[Michael Stickles]

Must be going blind in my old (OK, middle) age - Nina already pointed out the spelling Evterpi/Evterpe yesterday.

The OCA site - which Nina linked yesterday - is where I found the picture of the icon of the 40, and clipped out the picture of Euterpe that was in my previous post.

Mike

[Effie Ganatsios]

Dear Effie,

Do you celebrate your name-day on the 1st of September? If yes, that is why you can not find an icon of your Patron Saint. She is one of the 40 Virgin Martyrs and they are usually depicted in a group, the same as their holy martyrdom was (like the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia etc.)

You may view a group icon of the 40Holy Virgin Martyrs from the OCA (http://www.oca.org/FSlives.asp)website. Saint Euterpe (Evterpe - that is why Mike, who has the gift of Google did not find her- because of the spelling in Greek. :) I am sure he would have found her otherwise.) is on this group icon: the third martyr from the left of the second row. A longer version of their life and example can be found here (http://www.saintnicodemos.org/articles/christianmartyrdom.php) and is beautiful and so moving.

So instead of having only one saint, maybe it will be even better to get their group icon since that is how they faced martyrdom and you will not have only one saint watching over you but at least 40. Isn't that fantastic and such a blessing?! Or you can have someone make the icon of your patron saint if you prefer.

P.S Also you are so blessed to celebrate on the first day of the ecclesiastical year (if this is the case).

Thank you so much, Nina, for going to the trouble and looking all this up.

One curious thing though, when I posted my message yesterday, your message wasn't posted, or, as Mike said, I might be going blind in my old age............. because I didn't see it.

The correct spelling in English is Euterpe but the diphthong "eu" in Greek is pronounced either ev in some words and in others ef, hence my pet name Effie. Greek grammar gives me shivers every time I think of it - it is sooo complicated!

Yes, September the 1st is the first day of our ecclesiastical year and it is special. As August is.... Yesterday I was watching a programme on our local station and it was pointed out how very special the month of August is, not just because of the Dormition of the Theotokos - which is considered our "Easter" of the summer - but because of other celebrations as well.

Thank you again.

Effie

[Effie Ganatsios]

Mike wrote : "(I think our record is 17 Mikes at one reunion)."

I had a good laugh reading the above - are you sure you're not Greek, Mike?
(by the way we are still waiting for Rick's photo...).

Mike it is exactly the same here!!!! When families get together there are alway a lot of first cousins with the same christian names and surnames. That's why in official papers the father's name is always recorded.

Tradition is sometimes a little confusing.

Effie

[Effie Ganatsios]

Nina, I downloaded the icon. Thank you. How in the world did you find where St. Euterpe was? You were right, of course. I could just barely make out the ΕΥΤΕΡΠΗ(Ν) above the saint

[Nina]

Nina, I downloaded the icon. Thank you. How in the world did you find where St. Euterpe was? You were right, of course. I could just barely make out the ΕΥΤΕΡΠΗ(Ν) above the saint

I have very good eye vision :). Joking aside, I have no idea how, it just happened. You are so blessed to have so many sisters in martyrdom with your patron saint!

But you are right. Although I had posted, my posts are delayed... because... oh! I have trespassed and I am at the moment under canon. :)

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

But you are right. Although I had posted, my posts are delayed... because... oh! I have trespassed and I am at the moment under canon. :)

The correct word is epitimia.

10 points off your score card and back into the spiritual dungeon for you.

Signed- the management :)

[Katerina]

Hello, I am pretty new to this site, and I chose to become a member because I especially liked the tone here. I have been on and seen other Orthodox sites, and I can say that everyone here is "gentle", for lack of a better word.

If I also might add my two cents for what it may be worth:

I am a moderator on another site (weight loss/health). I know what it is like to be a volunteer and do this. It takes dedication and time from your normal life...also, depending on what forum and format, there are glitches and delays and all sorts of things that happen to not have a post come out in the order that it was posted, etc. I know when I posted my first ever post here, it took a bit of time before it appeared. On the forum I moderate, however, a post comes up right away. We as moderators, moderate the board and have to read ALL the posts and if they need to be edited, we do so only according to the rules that are part of the forum itself. I thought that here, perhaps my post didn't make it and got lost in cyberspace, but then I thought better and realized I don't know how this particular program works. I can honestly say I didn't see any censoring on anyone's part on this thread, nor (if you read Nina's post) is there anything that needed to be "moderated". I did see the innocent and funny humor!

I know that on occasion, me and my fellow moderators need to remind people that we are not attached to the keyboard on the other side of our monitors, and we have families and work and duties to attend to. It is not an easy job to do. I appreciate moderators very much now, and especially here, where discussions are spiritually enlightening, it is even more important. Patience is the name of the game as it is in every walk of life, but especially for us Orthodox.

I really do hope I have not stepped on anyone's toes, just hope to gently remind people that things aren't always what they seem to be...I have been known to jump to conclusions myself without truly knowing what everything is all about, and that makes not only a waste of my time on being upset, but also makes me think badly of others when that is truly not the case.

Again, thank you all for being here and letting me benefit from all of your thoughts and knowledge.

Forgive me,
In IC XC,

Katerina