Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

ALBAUD (ALADIUS), the successor of St. Aprus of Toul (15th September) as the eighth Bishop of Toul in Lorraine in present-day France. He served the See from circa 507 until his repose circa 525. While Bishop, St. Albaud completed construction of a church dedicated to St. Maurice of the Theban Legion (22nd September) which had been started by his predecessor, and rededicated it as the church of Saint-Epvre in honour of his predecessor.

ARETAS of ROME and COMPANIONS, (Date Unknown), a group five hundred and five martyrs in Rome. Though mentioned in the 9th century Martyrology of Usuard, the sixteenth century Annales Ecclesiastici by ecclesiastical historian Caesar Cardinal Baronius (†1607), and subsequently included in the Roman Martyrology, they are absent from earlier texts, which has led some scholars to conjecture they may be the same as the Martyr Aretha and companions in Arabia Felix (present-day Yemen) commemorated on 24th October.

BAVO of GHENT, born to a noble family near Liège (eastern Belgium) St. Bavo led a dissolute life in his early years and shortly after the death of his wife, was converted by St. Amandus of Maastricht (6th February). In time he distributed his assets to the poor and, founded an abbey in Ghent (north-western Belgium), which after his repose came to be called St. Bavo’s. In the final years of his life he lived as a hermit. St. Bavo reposed circa 654, at the abbey he founded.

DODONE of WALLERS-en-FAGNE (DODO), a spiritual child of St. Ursmar of Lobbes (19th April), St. Dodo received monastic tonsure at the Abbey of St. Peter of Lobbes (abbaye Saint-Pierre de Lobbes — Hainaut, Belgium), and later served as Abbot of the abbey at Wallers-en-Faigne, in the diocese of Cambrai (northern France). St. Dodo reposed in 750.

FIDHARLEUS, according to the noted 17th century hagiographer and historian John Colgan O.F.M. (†c. 1657), St. Fidharleus was the restorer, or second founding Abbot of Raithin Abbey. The exact location of the abbey is unknown, but it is generally believed to have been near present-day Longford, Co. Longford, Ireland. St. Fidharleus reposed in 762.

MELORIUS, (Date Uncertain), St. Melorius is claimed by both the Cornish and Bretons as a native son and the subject of several legends. Unfortunately, there is no reliable information to support any of the legends, and it is highly likely there were several persons who might have become a composite known to us as St. Melorius.

PIATON (PIATO, PIAT) of TOURNAI, a native Benevento in Campania (southern Italy) sent by Pope St. Fabian (20th January) to enlighten Gaul (France), and is now known as the Apostle of Tournai (Belgium), and Chartres (France). It is thought St. Piaton was martyred circa 286 at Tournai (western Belgium) during the reign of the Emperor Maximian (r. 286–305).

REMIGIUS (RÉMI, RÉMY) of REIMS, Apostle of the Franks. St. Remigius, devoted his early life to secular and sacred learning, withdrawing to a small house near Laon, Picardy (northern France), to live a life of prayerful reclusion. He became well known for his learning and holiness of life, that when in 459 a bishop was needed for the See of Reims (north-eastern France), the clergy and people proclaimed him the bishop, though still a layman and only twenty-two years of age. St. Remigius served as sixteenth Bishop of Reims for seventy-four years, during which time he became the leading prelate in Gaul (France). The crowning event of this episcopacy was the baptism in 496 of Clovis I, King of the Franks, (r. 481–511), and more than 3,000 of his soldiers, which in turn led to the conversion of the Franks to Nicene Christianity; a landmark event in the history of Western civilisation. St. Remigius reposed circa 533.

VERISSIMUS, MAXIMA, and JULIA, martyrs in Lisbon, Portugal circa 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution (303–313). Further details of their lives are no longer extant.

VIRILA, abbot of the monastery of St. Saviour (San Salvador) in Leyre in Navarre (Spain) who reposed circa 1000. Though there are many legends regarding him, aside from his serving as abbot of St. Saviour, nothing certain can be said about this saint.

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.