Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

Eastern Orthodox Christian theologian, historian, philosopher, and cultural commentator.

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

AMARINUS, abbot of a monastery in the Auvergne (Gaul), a friend and confidant of St. Praejectus, twenty-fifth Bishop of Clermont (vide infra), whom he was martyred with in 676.

ARTEMAS, (Date Unknown), a Christian youth who lived near Naples and was martyred by his schoolmates.

DWYNWEN, a Welsh saint believed to have been a daughter of King St. Brychan of Brycheiniog (6th April) , churches dedicated to her are to be found in Wales and Cornwall. Her holy well and shrine at Llanddwyn Island (Ynys Môn) in Anglesey were once centres of pilgrimage. After a troubled life, she reposed circa 460.

EOCHOD, known as the Apostle to the Scots and Picts in Galloway, St. Eochod was one of St. Columba of Iona’s (9th June) twelve companions when he travelled from Ireland to Scotland. There is no reliable information on his life extant; however, it is thought that he was chosen to preach in northern England and Galloway.

POPPO, a deeply devout and God-fearing monk of noble ancestry. St. Poppo's sanctity and probity, led to him being placed as abbot or prior of several monasteries in present-day Belgium and France. Often these houses were in need of restoration of order and religious observance, and the revival he had brought about spread to other monasteries throughout present-day Germany, France, and Switzerland. St. Poppo reposed of natural causes in 1048.

PRAEJECTUS, the twenty-fifth Bishop of Clermont in the Auvergne (Gaul). St. Praejectus was close friends with St. Amarinus (vide supra), with whom he was martyred in 676.

RACHO (RAGNOBERT), the first Bishop of Autun who reposed circa 660. Nothing further is known of his life.

SIGEBERHT, the first Christian King of the East Angles (r. 630/1–654). The principal source for King St. Sigeberht's life is St. Bede the Venerable (25th May), from whom we learn that he was the first English king to receive a Christian baptism and education before his succession, as well as the first to abdicate in order to enter the monastic life. With the help of St. Felix (8th March), the founder of the See of Dunwich, and St. Fursey (16th January), St. Sigeberht induced his subjects to embrace Christianity. By the time Penda of Mercia threatened the East Anglians, he had retired into a monastery; but his people recalled St. Sigeberht, and he fell in battle (635). As he was fighting against Pagans, he was venerated as a martyr.

THORGYTH (TORTGITH), the novice-mistress of Barking Abbey under St. Etheldreda of Ely (23rd June), and friend of its founder, St. Ethelburga (11th October). St. Thorgyth was known for her zeal and care for the young. She was described as a miracle of patience under suffering, as she is reputed to have suffered paralysis for six years and experienced a vision of Ethelburga just before the abbess’s death. St. Thorgyth reposed circa 700.

Prior to the Schism the Patriarchate of Rome was Orthodox, and fully in communion with the Orthodox Church. As Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco +1966 said “The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable Liturgy is far older than any of her heresies”.

Details of British Saints excerpted from Orthodox Saints of the British Isles.
Details of continental saints from these sources.

In many cases there are several spelling versions of the names of saints from the British Isles. I use the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography version as the primary version with the more prevalent version in parenthesis e.g. Ceadda (Chad) of Lichfield.