Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

CASSIAN of IMOLA, a third or fourth century martyr. St. Cassian was a schoolmaster, who is said to have been martyred by his students when he refused to offer a sacirfice to pagan gods. They tied him to a stake and stabbed him to death with their styli.

CASSIAN of TODI, a fourth century Bishop of Todi in central Italy, who was martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution (303–313).

CENTOLLA and HELEN of BURGOS, (Date Uncertain), two women, possibly nuns, who, according to tradition were martyred near Burgos in Spain.

HERULPH of LANGRES, St. Herulph received monastic tonsure at the Abbey of St. Gall (Abtei St. Gallen) in the present-day Swiss city of St. Gallen. He returned to his native Ellwangen in the Dutchy of Swabia (present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany) circa 764 where he founded and was first Abbot of the Abbey of Salvator Mundi and SS. Peter and Paul, the area’s first Benedictine monastery. St. Herulph later served as the thirty-third Bishop of Langres (north-eastern France), reposing in 785.

HIPPOLYTUS of ROME, CONCORDIA of ROME, and COMPANIONS, though one of the most important theologians of his era, very little is known of St. Hippolytus' life. This has resulted in a plethora of legends about him, none of which can be verified. St. Hippolytus has been accused of being part of the Novatian Schism, and of setting himself up as an alternative Bishop of Rome (antipope), after accusing the incumbent of Sabellianism. However, it seems St. Hippolytus repented and was reconciled to the Church before his martyrdom (circa 235). St. Concordia is said to have been St. Hippolytus’ nurse, and she, along with nineteen other Christians were beheaded outside the Tivoli Gate of Rome.

JUNIAN of MAIRÉ, a sixth century abbot and hermit. St. Junian was the founder of what came to be known as the Abbey of St. Junian of Nouaillé-Maupertuis (abbaye Saint-Junien de Nouaillé-Maupertuis) near Poitou (western France), and a friend of St. Radegunde (vide supra).

LUDOLF of CORVEY, related to the ducal family of the House of Saxony, and son of the Reeve of Corvey, St. Ludolf served as Abbot of Corbeia Nova (Fürstabtei Corvey) in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia from 965 until his repose in 983.

MURTAGH (MUREDACH) of KILLALA, (Fifth Century), St. Murtagh was a disciple of St. Patrick of Ireland (17th March), who consecrated him first Bishop of Killala, Co. Mayo, Ireland. The limited information we have on his life is mainly apocryphal. It appears he resigned his See after few years and spent the remainder of his life as a hermit on an island in Donegal Bay (north-western Ireland), now called Innismurray after him.

PONTIAN, the successor of St. Urban I (25th May) as Pope of Rome. However, three years into his pontificate he was exiled by the Emperor Maximinus I (r. 235–238) to Sardinia. Pope St. Pontian reposed in 235, whilst still in exile. His relics were translated to Rome during the papacy (236–50) of St. Fabian (20th January), and interred in the papal crypt of the Catacomb of Callistus.

RADEGUNDE, the daughter of a pagan King in Thuringia (eastern-central Germany) taken by Clotaire I, King of the Franks (r. 551–558) to be one of his six wives or concubines. In time she left Clotaire, received monastic tonsure, and founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross of Poitiers (abbaye Sainte-Croix de Poitiers) in the present-day village of Saint-Benoît, Vienne (south-eastern France) where she reposed in 587, after more than three decades of monastic life.

WIGBERT of FRITZLAR, a monk born in Wessex who joined St. Boniface of Mainz's (5th June) mission to the Germans circa 734. Upon arriving in Germany, St. Boniface made St. Wigbert abbot of the newly founded Abbey of St. Peter (Kloster St. Peter) in Fritzlar (present-day northern Hesse), there one of his disciples was the future abbot of Fulda Abbey, St. Sturm of Fulda (17th December). St. Wigbert left Fritzlar circa 737 to found the Abbey of St. Michael (abtei St. Michael) at Ohrdruf in Thuringia (east-central Germany). He is said to have been a very quiet and prayerful monk, as well as a wonderworker. Towards the end of his life, St. Wigbert returned to Fritzlar and spent his remaining days in prayer as a simple monk, reposing circa 747.

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.