Dr. John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall

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

            

Home » Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism See of Rome 11th December (NS) — 28th November (OS) 2023


Orthodox Saints of the Pre-Schism
See of Rome
11th December (NS) — 28th November (OS) 2023

by | 11th December 2023 | Orthodox Western Saints

28th November (OS)

FIONNCHU, (Sixth Century), the successor of St. Comgall (10th May) as Abbot of Bangor Abbey, Co. Down, Ireland. Nothing further is known of his life.

HIPPOLYTUS, an Abbot-Bishop of Saint-Claude in the Jura mountains of present-day France, who reposed circa 775. No further details of his life are known.

PAPINIANUS and MANSUETUS, (Fifth Century), two bishops who were amongst the numerous orthodox Christians in North Africa martyred under the Arian Gaiseric, King of the Vandals (r. 428 - 477). It is believed SS. Papinianus and Mansuetus were burnt to death.

RUFUS and COMPANIONS, A Roman who, along with his entire household, was martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution (303–313).

VALERIAN, URBAN, CRESCENS, EUSTACE, CRESCONIUS, CRESCENTIAN, FELIX, HORTULANUS, and FLORENTIAN, (Fifth Century), North African bishops who were exiled by the the Arian Gaiseric, King of the Vandals (r. 428 - 477). Reposing in exile they were subsequently commemorated as Hiero-confessors.

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11th December (NS)

CIAN, (Sixth Century), a monk in Wales, who spent the last years of his life as a hermit in Caernarvonshire. In some sources, he is described as a cell-attendant of St. Peris (vide infra). There is a church dedicated to him in Llangian, Gwynedd, Wales.

DAMASUS, archdeacon to the thirty-six Bishop of Rome, St. Liberius the Confessor (27th August), and though he initially accompanied St. Liberius into exile, St. Damasus soon returned to help with the administration of the Church until St. Liberius could return. Following St. Liberius’ repose in 366, St. Damasus was elected his successor by a sizeable majority. Unfortunately, opponents supporting another candidate Ursinus irregularly consecrated him, though Antipope Ursinus spent most of the rest of his life in exile. While pope, St. Damasus defended orthodoxy against both Apollinarianism and Macedonianism, convening councils in 368 and 369 which condemned these heresies. St. Damasus appointed St. Jerome (30th September) to undertake the translation of the Bible in to Latin, the product of this work is known today as the Vulgate St. Damasus reposed in 384.

EUTYCHIUS, a fourth century martyr in either Mérida or Cádiz, of whom nothing further is known.

FIDWETEN (FIVETEIN, FIDIVITANUS), a monk and disciple of St. Convoyon (5th January) at the Abbey of Saint-Sauveur in Redon, Brittany. St. Fidweten reposed circa 888.

FUSCIAN, VICTORIOUS, and GENTIAN, SS. Victoricus and Fuscian are said to have been helpers of St. Dionysius of Paris (9th October) in his mission to the Gauls. Whilst staying in Amiens with St. Gentian, whose desire it was to be baptised, the three were arrested and beheaded circa 287. Members of the group of beheaded saints known as cephalophores (Greek for head-carrier), it is said following their beheadings, the saints picked up their heads and carried them approximately 3.2 km (2 miles) south to the location of their burial — present-day Saint-Fuscien.

PERIS, (Date Unknown), the patron saint of Llanberis in Gwynedd, Wales. Whilst there is no specific record of his life extent, he is listed in the Bonedd y Saint as ‘a Cardinal of Rome’, and in other Peniarth MSS as one of the many children of Helig ap Glannog of Tyno Helig.

SABINUS, a fifth century Bishop of Piacenza in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern present-day Italy. St. Sabinus attended the Council of Aquileia of 381, and was the envoy of Pope St. Damasus (vide supra) to Antioch to suppress the Meletian Schism. He was a friend of St. St. Ambrose of Milan (7th December), who regularly sent St. Sabinus first drafts of his writings for comment and advice. St. Sabinus reposed 420.

TRASON, PONTIAN, and PRAETEXTATUS, martyrs in Rome during the Diocletianic Persecution, who were put to death for ministering to Christian prisoners circa 302.

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.