Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

AGNELLUS, a hermit who later was persuaded to become Abbot of San Gaudioso Abbey, it is sometimes said by a group of exiled North African monks. A reputed wonderworker, St. Agnellus is one of the patron saints of Naples Italy. He reposed circa 596.

FINGAR (GWINNEAR), PHIALA, and COMPANIONS, (Fifth Century), a brother and sister who left their native Ireland for Cornwall in England. However, they were soon martyred, along with their companions, in Hayle near Penzance by pagans.

HIBALD (HYGBALD), an abbot (perhaps at Bardney) in Lincolnshire, England. What little we know of him comes from mention in the Lives of his better-known contemporaries, SS. Egbert (24th April) and Chad (2nd March). St. Bede the Venerable calls him ‘an abbot in Lindsey (present-day Lincolnshire) and a friend of Saint Chad’. There are several churches dedicated to him, most notably at the village of Hibaldstow, which also takes its name from him. St. Hibald reposed circa 690, and his relics are enshrined at Hilbaldstow, Lincolnshire, England. His shrine was a place of pilgrimage, until it was destroyed by Protestants following the Reformation.

JUSTUS and ABUNDIUS, martyred in Spain under the Emperor Numerian (r. 283–284) and the Prefect Olybrius (283). Their captors tried to burn them at the stake, and when that proved unsuccessful, SS. Justus and Abundius were beheaded.

MATRONIANUS (MATRONIAN), (Date Unknown), a hermit near Milan, nothing further is known of his life. His relics were enshrined by St. Ambrose (7th December) in the basilica of San Nazaro in Brolo, Milan.

NICASIUS, EUTROPIA, and COMPANIONS, the twelfth Bishop of Rheims, who, with his sister St. Eutropia and a multitude of his clergy and faithful, were martyred either by Vandals circa 407, or Huns circa 451.

POMPEIUS, the second Bishop of Pavia in Lombardy. St. Pompeius reposed circa 290, possibly a martyr.

VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, The Poet-Saint, originally from the north of Italy, St. Venantius settled in Gaul. He was a writer and poet, the hymns Pange Lingua and possibly Vexilla Regis were composed by him. St. Venantius was a friend of Queen St. Radegund (13th August), He was consecrated Bishop of Poitiers at the end of the sixth century serving until his repose circa 610.

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.