January

The Martyr Cyrus was a native, student, and renowned physician of Alexandria. Visiting the sick, he treated them free of charge, for which he was called an unmercenary (бесребреник), and through this he brought many of them to Christ. During the persecution under Diocletian, Cyrus withdrew to the Arabian desert, where he continued to miraculously…

Hieromartyr Hippolytus and with him the martyrs: Censorinus the prefect, Savin, the virgin Chrysa, and 20 martyrs suffered in Rome in 269. Censorinus, for the holy faith, was cast into prison, where in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ he raised a dead man and thereby converted 20 soldiers to Christ. He and these…

The Translation of the Relics of the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer (commemorated December 20). According to tradition, St. Ignatius was the very child whom the Lord Jesus Christ took into His arms when He said to His disciples: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:2–5),…

Saint Ephraim the Syrian lived in the 4th century. He was born in Nisibis to poor but pious parents. When he was still a child, God revealed to his parents his future greatness. They saw as if a grapevine grew from Ephraim’s mouth, spread out, and filled the whole earth with its branches and fruit….

The future hierarch was born around the year 330 in Caesarea of Cappadocia (Asia Minor, now Turkey). His grandfather and grandmother had suffered persecution for being Christians under the Roman emperor Diocletian. His uncle was a bishop, as were two of his brothers—Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 335–394) and Peter of Sebaste (ca. 340–391), both of…