Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome
13th April
GUINOC, according to the Aberdeen Breviary, St. Guinoc was a Bishop in Scotland who reposed circa 838. No further information on his life is available.
HERMENEGILD, a son of Leovigild, King of the Visigoths (r. 568–586), St. Hermengild was raised as an Arian at his father’s Court. through the influence of his wife Ingunde, the orthodox Christian daughter of Sigebert I King of Austrasia (r. 561–575), and St. Leander (27th February), St. Hermenegild was brought to orthodox Christianity, not long after his marriage. St. Hermenegild’s rejection of Arianism so enraged his father who ordered him to renounce orthodox Christianity, and receive the Holy Gifts from an Arian bishop. Due to St. Hermenegild’s unwavering refusal to renounce orthodox Christianity, Leovigild had him imprisoned and tortured. Despite it all St. Hermenegild remained faithful to Christ, and was martyred in 585 on the order of his father.
MARTIN I, elected seventy-fourth Pope of Rome in 649, albeit without imperial approval. One of St. Martin’s first acts as Pope was to convene the Lateran Council of 649 at which two of the twenty canons issued condemned Monothelitism. This enraged the Monothelite Emperor, Constans II (r. 641–668), who had St. Martin arrested and deported to the Isle of Naxos in the South Aegean where he was imprisoned and torture. Following a mock trial, St. Martin was sentenced to death. Whilst the sentence was commuted, St. Martin reposed shortly after from the effects of his torture and imprisonment. St. Martin reposed in 655, and is considered the last of the martyred Popes of Rome.
MARTIUS, a hermit whose reputation of holiness attracted many disciples. As the number of disciples grew, St. Martius founded a monastery in Clermont (present-day Clermont-Ferrand, France) for them. He reposed circa 530.
URSUS, the son of a pagan Sicilian nobleman, who incurred his father’s wrath when he became a Christian. Forced to flee Sicily, St. Ursus settled in Ravenna, in the present-day Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, where his holiness of life so impressed the native population that St. Ursus was chosen to serve as Bishop of Ravenna. After two decades serving his See, St. Ursus reposed in 396.
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.