Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome

ANATOLIUS, a ninth century bishop in Scotland who, following a pilgrimage to Rome, quit his See to live as a hermit near present-day Salins-les-Bains, France.

ANSGAR (ANSCHAR), a native of Amiens, who, at a young age, received monastic tonsure at the Abbey of St. Peter of Corbie in Picardy (L'abbaye royale Saint-Pierre de Corbie - Old Corbie) where he was a disciple of SS. Adelard (2nd January) and Paschasius Radbert (26th April). Sent as a missionary to Scandinavia, St. Ansgar founded the first church in Sweden, and the first Christian school in Denmark. He was also part of the group of monks who were dispatched from Old Corbie, to Saxony to found New Corbie, where St. Ansgar served as Abbot for a time. He was the first Archbishop of Hamburg and appointed Papal Legate to Scandinavia by Pope Gregory IV. St. Ansgar was known for his great skill as a preacher, devotion to the poor and sick, as well as a wonderworker. St. Ansgar reposed at Bremen in 865.

BERLINDA (BERLINDIS, BELLAUDE), a noble maiden who lived a life of prayer in a monastery near Alost in Flanders. St. Berlinda was a niece of St. Amandus (6th February), and reposed in 702.

CAELLAINN (CAOILFIONN), St. Caellainn was an Irish saint for whom a church in Roscommon is dedicated. she is thought to have lived in the sixth century; however, there is no information about her extant.

CELERINUS of CARTHAGE, according to some sources he was a nephew of SS. Laurentius, Laurentinus, Ignatius, and Celerina (vide infra), who suffered imprisonment and torture in Rome during the Decian Persecution. Following his release, St. Celerinus returned to Carthage where St. Cyprian (16th September) ordained him to the Diaconate. He reposed circa 250, and due to the treatment he was subjected to in Rome, St. Celerinus has always been counted amongst the martyrs.

DEODATUS, (Eighth Century), a monk at Lagny Abbey (L'abbaye Saint-Pierre de Lagny) outside of Paris.

FELIX, SYMPHRONIUS (SEMPRONIUS), HIPPOLYTUS, and COMPANIONS, (Date Unknown), the listings in early martyrologies of this group as having been Africans who suffered there notwithstanding, later scholarship has led to a variety of theories as to where their martyrdom actually took place. The lack of extant lives makes it impossible to say with any certainty.

HADELIN, a disciple of St. Remaclus (3rd September) who also ordained him to the Priesthood. St. Hadelin, along with St. Remaclus founded the Abbey of Our Lady of Chelles in present-day Meaux, France. He spent his final years as a hermit near Dinant on the River Meuse, reposing circa 690.

IA (HIA, IVES), an Irish Princess, and sister of St. Erth (31st October), she travelled to Cornwall with SS. Fingar, Phiala, and Companions (14th December). She suffered martyrdom under King Teudar on the River Hayle in 450. St. Ia has left her name to the Cornish town of St. Ives, which grew up around her grave.

LAURENCE the ILLUMINATOR, St. Laurence, along with three hundred orthodox companions, fled Monophysite persecution in 514, and after a stay in Rome where he was priested, settled in Umbria. St. Laurence founded a monastery near Spoleto, where he had been elevated to the Episcopate. After twenty years in that See, he resigned and founded the Abbey of Farfa north of Rome. St. Laurence reposed at Farfa in 576.

LAURENTIUS, LAURENTINUS, IGNATIUS, and CELERINA, (Third Century), martyrs in North Africa during the Decian Persecution. According to some sources they were brothers and sister, and Aunt and Uncles of St. Celerinus of Carthage (vide supra).

LIAFDAG, first Bishop of Ribe in Jutland. St. Liafdag was martyred by pagans in 980.

LUPICINUS and FELIX, (Fifth Century), listed in martyrologies as Bishops of Lyons, St. Lupicinus is generally said to have reposed circa 486. St. Felix, who is said to have been St. Lupicinus' contemporary, was in all likelihood bishop of a different See. However, the lack of any documentation, means nothing certain of their lives is known beyond their mention in early martyrologies.

OLIVER (OLIVERIUS, LIBERIUS), a monk at the Abbey of Santa Maria di Portonuovo in Ancona. St. Oliver reposed circa 1050. No further information is extant.

PHILIP of VIENNE, tenth Archbishop of Vienne, serving from circa 560 until his repose in 578.

TIGIDES and REMEDIUS, two Bishops of Gap, St. Remedius from 394 to 419. St. Tigides, is said to have been his predecessor. However, aside from brief notes in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and Acta Sanctorum, there is no evidence that St. Tigides ever existed.

WERBURH (WERBURGA, WERBURGH), the daughter of the Mercian king, Wulfhere (r. 658–675), and St. Eormenhild (13th February), St. Werburh (less correctly ‘Werburgh’), was placed under the care of her aunt, St. Æthelthryth of Ely (23rd June). She lived a life of great sanctity and usefulness eventually becoming abbess, and under the instigation of her uncle King Æthelred (r. 675–704), worked to reform the monasteries of nuns in his kingdom. St. Werburh also established new monasteries at Trentham and Hanbury (in Staffordshire) and at Weedon (in Northants). She reposed circa 699 at Trentham, but her relics were translated to Chester in 875 to safeguard them from Danish invaders. Her shrine, fragments of which are still to be seen in Chester Cathedral, reportedly the site of many miracles, was destroyed during the reign of Henry VIII. St. Werburh is the patron saint of Chester.

WERBURGH, St. Werburgh was a widow who became a nun, most likely at Bardney in England, where she later served as Abbess. It is believed she reposed circa 785, and nothing further is known about this saint.

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.