Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

AGAPITUS the MARTYR, the patron saint of Palestrina, near Rome, St. Agapitus was only fifteen years of age during the Aurelian Persecution (274), when he was arrested, tortured, and then beheaded for publicly proclaiming Christ.

DAIG MAC CAIRILL (DAGAEUS, DAGANUS), all of the information on St. Daig Maccairill is of doubtful authenticity, though according to legend he was a disciple of St. Finnian of Clonard (12th December). St. Daig Mac Cairill is the patron saint of Iniskeen, Co. Monaghan, Ireland, of which he is reputed to have been both Abbot and Bishop, though it is highly unlikely he was ever elevated to the episcopate. St. Daig Mac Cairill reposed in 578.

EVAN (INAN) of AYRSHIRE, (Ninth Century), a hermit in Ayrshire, Scotland. St. Evan is patron saint of Irvine, Ayrshire, and there are several churches throughout Ayrshire dedicated to him. Unfortunately, further particulars of his life are no longer extant.

FIRMINUS of METZ, the limited authoritative information on his life tends to be contradictory. However, it seems that St. Firminus was the twentieth Bishop of Metz (north-east France) from circa 488 until his repose circa 496, and was most likely originally from Italy, or perhaps Greece.

FLORUS, LAURUS, PROCULUS, and MAXIMUS, Martyrs of Illyria, (Second Century), SS. Florus and Laurus were brothers and stonemasons in Illyria (north-western Balkan Peninsula); Proculus and Maximus their employers. The four were commissioned to construct a pagan temple, which after completion, they handed over to the local Christian community, which destroyed the idols, and erected a cross. After a night of prayer, SS. Florus, Laurus, Proculus, and Maximus were seized by the local authorities, and along with three hundred others were martyred.

HERMAS, SERAPION, and POLYAENUS of ROME, (Date Unknown), victims of a heathen mob in Rome, they were martyred by being dragged by their feet over rough ground until they died. According to tradition, fellow Christians were able to recover the remain of SS. Hermas, Serapion, and Polyaenus which they then properly buried.

JOHN and CRISPUS of ROME, (Date Unknown), though there is little documentation of their lives, it is said that SS. John and Crispus were priests in Rome who devoted themselves to recovering and burying the bodies of the martyrs. For this they were arrested and martyred themselves.

MILO of FONTENELLE, Milo and his father were Frankish noblemen who renounced the world and received monastic tonsure at Abbey of St. Peter / abbaye Saint-Pierre (later the Abbey of St. Wandrille / abbaye Saint-Wandrille) in Fontenelle, Normandy. St. Milo later lived as a hermit, and reposed circa 735.

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.