Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

AGOARD (AGOARDUS), AGILBERT (AGILBERTUS) of CRÉTEIL and COMPANIONS, a group of Martyrs said to have been too numerous to count. It is generally believed they were massacred in a popular uprising against Christians, at Créteil, near Paris. However, the information regarding these Martyrs currently extant (including the dates — given variously as the Third century or sometime in the Fifth to Seventh centuries) is quite unreliable.

EREMBERT I of KREMSMÜNSTER, an Abbot of Kremsmünster (in the present-day Austrian state of Upper Austria). St. Erembert reposed circa 1050.

FAUSTUS and COMPANIONS of ROME, (Date Unknown), St. Faustus is the only one a group of twenty-four Martyrs in Rome whose name is still known to us. There are no extant Acts, nor is the date of their martyrdom known. Some have posited that he was converted at the end of her life by St. Dafrosa of Acquapendente (4th January), mother of St. Bibiana (2nd December), whilst others count him and his fellow-sufferers as members of the group martyred with St. Luceias (Lucy) (25th June).

GERMOC, (Sixth Century), St. Germoc, an Irish chieftain, was a brother of St. Breaca of Cornwall (4th June). He went to Cornwall, England where he settled near Mount’s Bay where St. Germoc’s church commemorates him. Unfortunately, no further information on his life is extant.

GOHARDUS (GOHARD) of NANTES, a ninth century Bishop of Nantes (Upper Brittany region of western France) who was martyred, along with a large number of monks and priests, by raiding Normans on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner in 843. According to the contemporaneous Chronicles of Nantes they were martyred in the cathedral where they had taken refuge. A later tradition adds the martyrdom happened whilst St. Gohardus was celebrating the Mass, and he fell just as he was saying the Sursum Corda. Some calendars erroneously list his feast on the 25th of June, however, the record of the martyrdom in the contemporaneous Chronicles of Nantes clearly states the martyrdom took place on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner (24th June).

HENRY the HAGIOGRAPHER (HERIC) of AUXERRE, a monk, noted hagiographer, and headmaster of the monastic school at the Abbey of St. Germanus of Auxerre (abbaye Saint-Germain d'Auxerre) in Auxerre, Burgundy (France), St. Henry reposed circa 880.

IVAN of BOHEMIA, (Ninth Century), a royal advisor who renounced a senior position at the court of Bohemia to become a hermit. Following his repose, St. Ludmilla (16th September) ensured St. Ivan received a proper burial.

JOHN of TUI, a ninth century Galician who lived as an anchorite near Tui, Galicia (north-western Spain). His relics are enshrined at Tui.

RUMOLD (RUMBOLD, ROMBAULD), sources differ as to whether St. Rumold was a native of Ireland or England, but he travelled to Rome, where he received Episcopal consecration and charged with evangelising Brabant, in present-day central Belgium. St. Rumold was quite successful at converting the populace, and from time-to-time preached in neighbouring provinces. On one of these trips, St. Rumbold was set-upon by bandits, who murdered him. His relics are enshrined at the Cathedral of St. Rumbold (Sint-Romboutskathedraal) in Mechelen, Belgium.

SIMPLICIUS of AUTUN, St. Gregory of Tours (17th November) mentions St. Simplicius as a Bishop of Autun who not only eradicated paganism in his diocese, but is said to have baptised one thousand pagans in one day. St. Simplicius had married whilst a layman, however, he and his wife lived a celibate and chaste life. St. Simplicius reposed circa 360.

THEODULPHUS (THIOU) of LOBBES, the fifth Abbot of the Abbey of St. Peter of Lobbes (abbaye Saint-Pierre de Lobbes — Hainaut, Belgium), and later consecrated Bishop of Lobbes as well. St. Theodulphus reposed in 776.

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.