Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome
23rd August
ALTIGIANUS and HILARINUS, two monks martyred by Saracens at Saint-Seine in Burgundy (east-central France) in 731.
EBBA (ÆBBA, EBBE) the YOUNGER and COMPANIONS, St. Ebba the Younger was Abbess of Coldingham, an abbey in the Scottish Borders, which had been founded two centuries prior by St. Æbba the Elder (25th August). During a Viking raid on Scotland in 879, St. Ebba mutilated her nose and upper lip with a razor, in the hopes of discouraging the invaders from raping her. With her encouragement, the entire community followed suit. The act is one of the possible origins of the expression ‘cutting off the nose to spite the face’. While it did result in revolting the Vikings, they set fire to the monastery in retaliation, killing the entire community.
Troparion of St. Ebba the Younger — Tone I
Having finished your course and kept the Faith unto the end
In the agony of immolation ye died for Christ
The Lamb and Shepherd, slain as reason-endowed ewe-lambs
Wherefore, magnifying Him with joyous soul
We celebrate your holy memory today,
O right wondrous and glorious Ebba
and all those of thy flock who suffered with thee.
ÉOGHAN (EUGENE, EUNY, OWEN) of ARDSTRAW, born in Leinster, Ireland, St. Éoghan spent a great deal of time missionising, with great success both in Britain and on the Continent. He returned to his native land where he was consecrated the first Bishop of Ardstraw, which later became the See of Derry of which St. Éoghan is patron saint. St. Éoghan reposed circa 618.
FLAVIAN (FLAVINIAN, FLAVIUS) of AUTUN, the twenty-first Bishop of Autun, Burgundy (France). It is generally believed he lived in the first half of the seventh century.
MINERVIUS, ELEAZAR, and COMPANIONS of LYONS, although the extant details leave much to be desired; it is fairly safe to say SS. Minervius and Eleazar, along with eight children, were martyred at Lyons (east-central France) in the early third century.
QUIRIACUS, MAXIMUS, ARCHELAUS, and COMPANIONS of OSTIA, St. Quiriacus, Bishop of Ostia (Metropolitan Rome); Maximus, a priest; and Archelaus, a deacon; along with an unknown number of Christian soldiers seem to have been martyred at Ostia. The Roman Martyrology places their martyrdom during the reign of Emperor Severus Alexander (r. 222–235), however contemporary scholarship places it at some time after 255.
TYDFIL, according to legend, St. Tydfil was a daughter of King St. Brychan of Brycheiniog (6th April). She is said to have been martyred, with others, circa 480, by marauding Picts and Saxons at the location now known as Merthyr Tydfil in Mid Glamorgan, Wales.
VICTOR VITENSIS (VICTOR of VITA), a Bishop of Vita, in the Roman Province of Byzacena (present-day Tunisia). He is mainly remembered as the author of the Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Geiserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum, his eyewitness accounts of the suffering afflicted upon orthodox Christians of northern Africa by the Arian Vandals. St. Victor was banished by the Vandals and reposed in exile on the Island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of the sixth century.
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.