July

Synaxarion
This month has thirty-one days with fourteen hours of day and ten
hours of night.

July 1
Memory of the holy Wonderworkers and
Unmercenaries
Cosmas and Damian
By means of the Byzantine rule over a part of Italy from
Justinian to Constantine Copronymus (554-752), the
veneration of the holy physicians Cosmas and Damian
spread to Rome where nine churches were built in their
honor, three of which are still standing. The most famous of
them is the oldest, built by Pope Saint Felix IV (526-536)
in the forum on the Miranda Way. The veneration rendered
to these Saints in Rome made some people wrongly believe
that there had been two other Saints Cosmas and Damian
who had been martyred in Rome. (Because of this, it is
understandable why the Byzantine Church commemorates
these holy physicians on two occasions: on November 1
and on July 1).
Fourth Class Feast.
Until July 27 exclusively, the Kondakion of the Sundays and Major
Feasts is the common Kondakion, except for a noted exception.

July 2
The Placing of Precious Robe of our Most Holy Lady,
the Theotokos at Blachernae (458)
The Placing of the Precious Robe took place in the
magnificent church of the Theotokos in the palace of
Blachernae in 458, under Emperor Leo of Thrace. This
church enjoyed a very great renown, particularly after the

Avars' defeat, which we commemorate on the fifth

Saturday of Great Lent when we sing the Akathist hymn.
Fourth Class Feast. Troparia: of the Theotokos at Blachernae, and of
the Church Patron. Kondakion of the Theotokos at Blachernae.
In occurrence with a Sunday, follow the general order of Fourth Class
Feasts, except that the Kondakion is of today.

July 3
Memory of the holy Martyr Hyacinthos
(beginning of the Second century)
Our Father among the Saints Anatolios, Archbishop of
Constantinople (+458)
It is believed that the holy martyr Hyacinthos suffered in
Rome under Emperor Trajan, around the beginning of the
Second century.
Saint Anatolios was a priest and apocrisiary of the Church
of Alexandria in Constantinople. In the last years of
Theodosius the Younger, Arcadius' son, Anatolios, was
consecrated Archbishop of Constantinople in the month of
December 449 upon the entreaties of Dioscorus of
Alexandria who hoped to find in him an accomplice of his
heresy. Dioscorus was deceived. At the Council of
Chalcedon, the Saint deposed Dioscorus and inscribed
Saint Flavian's name in the diptychs. Saint Flavian was
deposed by Dioscorus to the Brigandage of Ephesus and
died during a beating given him by the heretics. He was
placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles and he had sent
encyclical letters to the bishops to explain the Orthodox
faith to them and to engage them in fighting the leaders of
the heresy: Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus and all those
who admitted a change or a blending in Christ's divine
nature. He died in peace in 458.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 4
Andrew of Crete, the Jerusalemite
Saint Andrew was born of pious parents in Damascus
around 660. After having gone through the whole cycle of

profane and religious studies, he was ordained a cleric of

the Church of Jerusalem by Patriarch Theodore. That is
why he is called the Jerusalemite. He was sent to
Constantinople around 685 and signed the definition of the
Sixth Ecumenical Council, held against the Monothelites.
He lived there in one of the monasteries of the capital. Then
he became a deacon of the Church of Constantinople and
director of the Holy Wisdom Orphanage and Saint Eugene's
old men's home. He was elected Archbishop of Gortyna in
Crete. He attended the Council in Trullo in 692. In 712
during the reign of Philippicus Bardanes, weakened by an
illness, he subscribed to the Monothelite definition of the
heretical synod which this tyrant had gathered. He
immediately repented of it. He left numerous writings and
panegyrics to the Church, in praise of God, the Theotokos,
and the Saints. He illumined the Church by his writings and
hymns of which the most famous is the Great Canon, which
is perhaps the first under date of the melodious Canons. He
governed his flock wisely and defended the veneration of
the Holy Icons and died in peace on the Island of Mytilene
in 740.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 5
Memory of our venerable Fathers Athanasius of Mount
Athos
(+end of the Tenth or beginning of the Eleventh
century), and
Lampadios the Wonderworker (Tenth century)
The holy Martha, mother of Saint Simeon of the
Wonderful Mountain (+551)
Saint Athanasius was born in Trebizond. At first he
withdrew to a mountain called Kymnias in Mysia of
Bithynia. Then he went to Mount Athos and founded a
great monastery, still known under the name of Saint
Athenasius' Laura, or Lavra. He died around the end of the
Tenth century or at the beginning of the Eleventh century.
From his childhood Saint Lampadios devoted himself to the
exercises of ascetical life. He withdrew to a grotto near
Irenopolis of Isauria. He lived in the Tenth century.

Saint Martha was the mother of Saint Simeon the hermit of

the Wonderful Mountain whom we commemorate on May
24. Continually devoting herself to prayer in the churches,
she received from heaven the promise of a child who was
Saint Simeon. She was faithful to her numerous prayers and
ascetical exercises. She received strangers, clothed the
naked, nourished the poor, and procured baptismal robes
for those who were not able to have them for baptism, and
funeral clothes for the dead. She died in 551, having known
three months in advance the hour of her death.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 6
Memory of our venerable Father Sisoes the Great
(+429)
Saint Sisoes was of Egyptian descent. He lived sixty years
on a mountain where Saint Anthony the Great had
withdrawn before him. He died around 429, having
received from God the gift of raising the dead.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 7
Memory of our venerable Fathers Thomas of Maleum
(end of the Tenth century) and
Akakios who is mentioned in "The Ladder of Virtues"
(First half of the Sixth century)
The holy Great martyr Kyriake
(beginning of the Fourth century)
Saint Thomas was a soldier by profession. For Christ's love
he was clothed in the monastic habit and withdrew to a
mountain called Maleum on the borders of he Peloponnese.
He died around the end of the Tenth century.
Saint Akakios lived on the holy mountain of Sinai in the
first half of the sixth century.
Saint Kyriake suffered martyrdom in Tropaea in Achaia
under Emperor Diocletian around the beginning of the
Fourth century.

Fifth Class Feast.

July 8
Memory of the holy and glorious Great martyr
Procopius (+303)
Saint Procopius was the first victim of Diocletian's
persecution in Palestine in 303. A native of Aelia or
Jerusalem, he lived in Scythopolis where he occupied three
offices in the Church: those of lector, of interpreter of the
Syriac language, and finally, in spite of his sufferings, of
exorcist. Discovered, he was led to Caesarea where the
President ordered him to sacrifice to the gods and obey the
four emperors. The martyr acting keenly on the sense of the
words said to him: "The polyarchy is disastrous. It is better
that there be only one Sovereign, only one Emperor." He
was immediately led out to be beheaded and thus found the
short road which leads to heaven.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 9
Memory of the holy Hieromartyr Pancratios,
Bishop of Taormina in Sicily (?)
Saint Pancratios was perhaps the first Bishop of Taormina,
Sicily. He suffered martyrdom there at an uncertain epoch.
Tradition relates that he lived in apostolic times. A native of
the vicinity of Antioch, he received holy baptism in
Jerusalem at the same time as his father and mother. Upon
his parents' death, he abandoned his possessions and
withdrew to a grotto in the region of Pontus. Passing
through this region Saint Peter met the holy hermit and led
him with him to Antioch, then to Cicilia. There, Saint
Pancratios met Saint Paul who then ordained three bishops,
Crescens for Galatia, Martian for Syracuse, and Saint
Pancratios for Taormina. Saint Pancratios was
treacherously assassinated by the pagans in an ambush.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 10

Memory of the Forty-Five Holy Martyrs of

Nicopolis in Armenia (+319)
It is believed that these holy martyrs suffered for Christ
under the tyrant Licinius and President Lysias around 319.
They counted in their ranks the first dignitaries of the city:
Leontios, Maurikios, Daniel, and Anthony. Having
submitted each one to different tortures, they were all
thrown together into a fiery furnace, and thus crowned their
struggles by martyrdom.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 11
Memory of the holy Great martyr and very Renowned
Euphemia
Saint Euphemia is commemorated on September 16. Today
only her miraculous intervention in favor of the definition
of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon is
commemorated. As a matter of fact, it is related that during
the holy Council held against the Monophysites Eutyches
and Dioscorus, under Emperor Marcian and Empress
Pulcheria, after long and unfruitful discussions, the Council
Fathers-as many holding the Orthodox faith, six hundred
and thirty in number, as the number of those holding the
contrary doctrine-unanimously agreed to write the debated
subject-matter in two volumes, and to implore the divine
judgment to settle the controversies. Each party then put its
volume into the reliquary which contained the Saint's body
and the Fathers departed after having sealed the reliquary.
After three days of uninterrupted prayer, they opened it in
the Emperor's presence and found the heretics' volume at
the Saint's feet, but on the contrary, that of the Orthodox in
her right hand.
Although this is a Fifth Class Feast, the Epistle and Gospel of Saint
Euphemia are read.
In occurrence with a Sunday: the Epistle of Saint Euphemia is read.

July 12
Memory of the holy Martyrs Proclos and Hilarios
(+under Trajan, 98-117)

It is believed that these holy martyrs suffered for Christ

under Emperor Trajan (98-117). They were natives of the
region of Kallipe, near Ancyra. Saint Proclos was seized
first. Having confessed Christ before the Emperor, he was
handed over to President Maximos who ordered that he be
burned on the stomach and sides with flaming torches
fastened to his feet. While he was being led to his torture,
he met his nephew Hilarios who, having embraced him,
was immediately seized as a Christian. Saint Proclos died
under a shower of darts. Having courageously confessed
his Christian faith, Hilarios was cruelly beaten, beheaded.
He was buried under Saint Proclos.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 13
Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel
Memory of our venerable Father Stephen the Sabbaite
In addition to the solemn Synaxis of Saint Gabriel of March
26, the Church today commemorates this holy Archangel
for a second time. The reason for this is perhaps the desire
of the faithful to commemorate this Saint outside the time
of Great Lent, when ecclesiastical solemnities are
necessarily restricted. Some people believe that today's
feast was especially instituted to implore Saint Gabriel's
help against the Agarenians.
Saint John Damascene's nephew, Saint Stephen the
Sabbaite is probably the same person as Saint Stephen the
Sabbaite and Poet, whose life was related on October 28.
Fifth Class Feast.
On Sunday July 13, or on the following Sunday: The Office of the Holy
God-Bearing Fathers who Attended the First Six Ecumenical Councils:
the three hundred and eighteen Fathers of the first Council, at Nicaea;
of the one hundred and fifty Fathers of the second Council, at
Constantinople; the two hundred Fathers of the third Council, at
Ephesus; the six hundred and thirty Fathers of the fourth Council, at
Chalcedon; the one hundred and sixty-five Fathers of the fifth Council,
at Constantinople, the second in this city; the one hundred and seventy
Fathers of the sixth Council, at Constantinople, the third in this city.
Third Class Feast. Typika and Beatitudes. Isodikon of the Sunday.
Troparia: of the Resurrection, of the Holy God-bearing Fathers who
attended the First Six Ecumenical Councils, and of the Church Patron.

Epistle and Gospel of the Holy God-bearing Fathers who attended the
First Six Ecumenical Councils.
Epistle of the Sunday of the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
of Nicaea: Titus 3:8-15.
Gospel: Matthew 5:14-19.

July 14
Memory of the holy Apostle Aquila (First century)
Our Father among the Saints Joseph the Confessor,
Archbishop of Thessalonica (ca. 762-832)
A native of Pontus in Asia Minor, Saint Aquila was a Jew
by race and exercised the profession of a tent-maker.
Converted to the Christian faith in Rome, by Claudius'
edict around the year 50, he was driven from the capital at
the same time as the other Jews. Being in Corinth with his
wife Prisca around the year 50, at the time of Saint Paul's
first passage through this city, he offered him hospitality.
The Apostle lived with him for a rather long time
exercising the same trade as Aquila. The two spouses then
followed Paul to Ephesus. After his departure to Jerusalem,
they asked for Apollos of Alexandria, who only preached
John's baptism, and instructed him more perfectly in the
way of the Lord. They then must have returned to Rome for
the Apostle greets them in his epistle to the Romans
(Romans 16:3) as his fellow-workers in Jesus Christ. He
greets them a second time toward the end of his second
epistle to Timothy (II Timothy 4:19) as sojourners at
Ephesus. It is not exactly known then, where, or how they
ended their lives.
The son of Photin and Theoktista and the brother of Saint
Theodore the Studite, Saint Joseph was born in
Constantinople around 762. He received a first-class
education in Constantinople. Upon his maternal uncle
Plato's exhortation, who was then the hegumen of the
monastery of Symbles, he embraced monastic life with his
father, two of his brothers, and three aunts, around 781.
They founded a new monastery called Sakkoudion on
Mount Olympus in Bithynia. When the Arabs ravaged the
country, upon Empress Irene's order they went to take up
their abode at the monastery of Stoudion in the capital. The
monastery was no longer under Plato's direction but under

Saint Theodore's own direction. The two brothers

collaborated in composing the canons of the Triodion.
Joseph composed several canons of the Pentekostarion as
well as those for the weeks of the Oktoechos. He became
Archbishop of Thessalonica in 807. He was exiled for the
first time by Emperor Nicephoros I Logothetus (809-811)
on account of his predecessor Constantine VII
Porphyrogenitus' adultery. He was exiled a second time by
Leo the Armenian (815-820) for the veneration of the Holy
Icons. Delivered up to death by Leo, his life was ended in a
market town of Thessalia on July 15, 832. In 844, his holy
body was solemnly transferred to the monastery of
Stoudion and buried next to the bodies of his brother Saint
Theodore and his uncle Saint Plato.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 15
Memory of the holy Martyrs Kerikos and Julitta, his
mother (?)
A native of Iconium, Saint Julitta lived under Emperor
Diocletian. Fleeing the persecution, she took her three year
old son Kerikos and went to Seleucia. Finding the same
misfortunes there, she went to Taurus in Cilicia where she
was seized and led before the Governor. The Governor
snatched her son and by caresses and flatteries tried to draw
him to him. Crying and stammering Christ's name, the child
kicked the Governor's chest as much as he could. Provoked,
the Governor smashed his head against the steps of the
tribunal. After many tortures his blessed mother was
beheaded around the year 296.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 16
Memory of the holy Hieromartyr Athenogenes and of
his
Ten disciples (Fourth century)
Saint Athenogenes was Chorbishop of Sebastea, Armenia,
in the time of Emperor Diocletian. He lived with his ten
disciples in the market town of Phylactoa, now called
Bedochton. Led before President Philemarkos, the latter

ordered that his ten disciples be beheaded and that

Athenogenes be burned. He is the author of a hymn which
Saint Basil mentions and which some have wrongly
identified with the vesper hymn: "O Joyful Light..."

July 17
Memory of the holy Great martyr Marina
(+under Claudius the Goth, 268-269)
It is believed that Saint Marina suffered martyrdom in
Antioch of Pisidia under Emperor Claudius the Goth (268269). She was the only daughter of a pagan priest. Upon
her mother's death, she was entrusted to a Christian woman
who instructed her in Christ's faith. At the age of fifteen,
she was seized by President Olybrios who interrogated her
on her name, country, and faith. She answered: "My name
is Marina. I was born and raised in Pisidia. I invoke my
Lord Jesus Christ's name." She was submitted to chains,
prisons, and lashes and was finally beheaded.
Fifth Class Feast.
In occurrence with a Sunday: Troparia: of the Resurrection, of the
Holy God-bearing Fathers who attended the First Six Ecumenical
Councils, of Saint Marina, and of the Church Patron. Ordinary
Kondakion.

July 18
Memory of the holy Martyr Aimilianos
(+under Julian the Apostate, 360-363)
A native of Dorostolla in Mysia of Thrace, Saint Aimilianos
was the slave of a pagan master, in the time of Emperor
Julian the Apostate (360-363) and Prefect Capitolinus.
Inflamed with Christ's love, he held idols in abhorrence.
One day he entered a pagan temple and smashed all the
statues which he found therein with the hammer which he
had in his hand. Ignorant of what had happened, the pagans
again replaced them. The Saint again smashed them and
gave him what folly it was to rely on vain idols. Cruelly
beaten with ox sinews and thrown into a fire, he thus
committed his soul to God.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 19
Memory of our venerable Mother Macrina, the
Sister of Saint Basil the Great
Our venerable Father Dios (+431)
Gifted with remarkable beauty and pleasant manners, Saint
Macrina, without her knowledge, was promised in marriage
by her father to a young man from a noble family. This
young man died on one of his business trips. Blessed
Macrina rejected many other suitors and preferred
widowhood and its annoyances to the joys of marriage. She
abstained from all worldly relations in order to live with her
mother Emelia, unoccupied for the study of the Holy
Scriptures. She became a second mother for her ten
younger brothers. She entirely consecrated herself to their
formation and education. Until her last moments she
corresponded with her brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa
concerning the soul. She died in the month of December
379, after a holy and austere life.
In great austerity and continual progress in virtue, our holy
father Dios lived in Antioch, Syria in the time of
Theodosius the Great (379-395). He went to Constantinople
and acquired the spot where he would later build his
famous monastery. His virtue could not remain hidden for
long. Emperor Theodosius came to see him in person and,
full of admiration, offered him all the money necessary for
the construction of his monastery. Against his will he was
ordained a priest by the holy Bishop Atticus. He died in
431.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 20
Memory of the Holy and Glorious Prophet Elias
the Thesbite (Ninth century B.C.)
Saint Elias was born in Thebe or Thisbe, a city of Galaad in
Transjordan. According to Jewish tradition he was a
descendant of a priestly family. A man of solitude and
austerity, his clothes consisted of a sheepskin tunic and a
leather belt around his waist. His name signifies "my God
is Yahweh." He confounded the ungodliness and injustice

of Achab (869-850), the King of Israel. According to the

tradition of the ancient Church Fathers, in particular Saint
Basil, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, and perhaps the Jews
themselves, Saint Elia had lived on Mount Carmel. While
he was conversing with his disciple Elisae, he suddenly
appeared to rise toward heaven carried away in a fiery
chariot. This occurred under Josaphat, the King of Juda
(873-849). According to the prophet Malachia (Malachia
3:23), God will send him "before the day of Yahweh comes,
the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers to
their children, and the hearts of the children to their
fathers," that is, before the second coming of Our Savior
Jesus Christ.
Third Class Feast, follow the general order of a Third Class Feast.

July 21
Memory of our venerable Fathers Simeon, a Fool-forChrist's-Sake,
and his companion John (Sixth century)
Saints Simeon and John were natives of Edessa, Syria.
They went to Jerusalem and withdrew to the monastery of
Saint Gerasimos. Clothed in the holy monastic habit, they
spent forty years in the desert in austerities and ascetical
exercises. Saint John remained in the desert until the end of
his life. On the contrary, Saint Simeon went to Edesa. There
he feigned madness, which merits for him the surname of
"a Fool-for-Christ's-Sake." He was only recognized after
his death. Each one related a characteristic of his life that
the others had not known about. All these accounts have
served for the faithful's edification and usefulness. Born
around the year 522, he died in peace around the end of the
Sixth century.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 22
Memory of the holy Myrrh-Bearer and Equal-to-theApostles
Mary Magdalene (First century)
As her name indicates, this holy myrrh-bearer was a native
of a city of Galilee called Magdala, near the lake of

Tiberias. At Christ's word, she was delivered from seven

devils which possessed her. She followed the Master
everywhere, faithfully serving Him until His Passion. She
prepared the aromatic spices to embalm His sacred body.
With the Most Holy Theotokos, she was the first one to
have seen Christ risen, when on Easter morning she saw
two angels clothed in dazzling raiment, then the Lord
Himself whom she took for a gardener who said to her: "Do
not touch Me." Nothing is known for certain about this
Saint's life after the Ascension of Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 23
Translation of the relics of the holy Martyr Phocas
(between 398 and 404)
Memory of the holy Prophet Ezechiel (Sixth century
B.C.)
It is believed that Saint Phocas' relics were carried to
Constantinople during Saint John Chrysostom's episcopate
(398-404).
The prophet Ezechiel was the son of the priest Buzi. He
was led captive to Babylon under King Joachin of Juda in
597. He began his prophetic ministry in the fifth year of his
captivity and continued it for almost twenty-two years. He
is the third of the Major Prophets.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 24
Memory of the holy Great martyr Christina (+ca. 220)
It is believed that Saint Christina suffered martyrdom in
Tyre, Phoenicia under Emperor Septimus Severus around
the year 220. It is told that she was the daughter of Urban,
an army leader, who locked her in a very high tower with
golden idols and other precious materials. Thinking that
inanimate objects made by human hands could not be gods,
Saint Christina looked to heaven and, recognizing the
Creator through his creatures, broke her father's idols and

distributed the pieces to the poor. She was submitted to

atrocious tortures and died during a beating.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 25
Dormition of holy Ann, Mother of the Theotokos
If the tradition is to be believed, Saint Ann lived for sixtynine years, and Saint Joachim lived for eighty years. It is
not known which of these two holy spouses died first. It is
commonly said that the Most Holy Theotokos was already
orphaned of her father and mother by twelve years of age,
when she was still living in the Temple.
Third Class Feast, follow the general order of a Third Class Feast. The
Kondakion is that of the Dormition of Saint Ann.

July 26
Memory of the holy Hieromartyr Hermolaus and his
Companions Hermippos and Hermocratos (+312)
The holy Hosiomartyr Paraskevia (?)
It is believed that Saint Hermolaus and his companions
suffered martyrdom in Nicomedia in Bithynia, under
Emperor Maximian around 312.
As for the holy martyr Paraskevia, whose name signifies
"Preparation," she was born of pious parents named
Agathon and Politia in a market town in the vicinity of
Rome. She was called Paraskevia because she was born on
a Friday (in Greek "paraskeve"). Having learned the
reading of the Holy Scriptures from her youth, she led a
retired life applied to meditating on the divine Word and
converting a great number of infidels to Christ's faith. She
was seized in the time of Emperor Antoninus the Pious and
as she was commanded to adore idols, she answered with
these words of the prophet Jeremia (Jeremia 10:11): "Let
the gods that did not make heaven and earth perish from the
earth." She was beheaded after cruel tortures around the
year 140.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 27
Holy and Great Martry Panteleemon
Saint Panteleemon was born of a pagan father named
Eustorgus and a Christian mother named Eubola who raised
him in the true faith in Nicomedia. He was instructed in the
Christian faith by Saint Hermolaus who is commemorated
on July 26. Having learned the medical profession, he
exercised it with a wonderful charity, healing every illness
by Christ's grace more than by his profession's means. He
showed compassion for all the illnesses of body and soul
which merited him to be named Panteleemon instead of
Pantoleon which was formerly his name. One day by the
invocation of God's name, he opened a blind man's eyes
and by it even opened the eyes of his heart to the light of
faith. This was the cause of his martyrdom. Interrogated
concerning the person who had cured him and upon the
method of his cure, the blind man, as the blind man of the
Gospel, simply revealed the name of his benefactor and the
story of his cure to the persecutors. He was immediately
put to death also. As for Saint Penteleemon, he was seized
and beheaded after cruel beatings, in 305 under Emperor
Maximian.
Third Class Feast. From today forward, the Kondakion of Sundays and
Major Feasts is that of the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord, God, and
Savior Jesus Christ (August 6).

July 28
Memory of the holy Apostles and Deacons Prochoros,
Nicanor, Timor, and Parmenas (First century)
These Saints were among the seven deacons chosen by the
Apostles. Tradition relates that Prochoros became Bishop
of Nicomedia in Bithynia and that he died in peace. After
having preached the Gospel, Saint Nicanor died on the
same day on which Saint Stephen was stoned to death.
Saint Parmenas died under the eyes of the Apostles in the
exercise of his office.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 30

Memory of the holy Apostles Silas, Silvanos, Crescens,

Epenetos, and
Andronicos of the Seventy Disciples (First century)
It is commonly believed that the Silas of the Acts is the
same person as the Silvanos of Saint Paul's epistles. He was
one of the eminent persons of the Church of Jerusalem
since he was sent with Paul and Barnabas to exhort and
confirm the brothers in Antioch. He afterwards followed
Paul into many countries.
Saint Crescens likewise followed the Apostle Saint Paul
and reached Galatia.
As for Saint Epenetos, the same Apostle addresses him a
greeting toward the end of his epistle to the Romans
(Romans 16:5), calling him the "first-fruits of Asia," that
is , of Ephesus (and not of Achaia as it is sometimes said).
In this same place (Romans 16:7), the Apostle also greets
Saint Andronicos, who is the same person as the
Andronicos who is commemorated on May 17 with Saint
Junias.
Fifth Class Feast.

July 31
Memory of the Holy and Just Eudocimos (+840)
Saint Eudocimos lived under the Iconoclast Emperor
Theophilos (829-842). Natives of Cappadocia, his parents
Basil and Eudocia joined to the nobility of their patrician
origin a steadfast attachment to the Orthodox faith. Raised
by his pious parents in the practice of virtue, he was named
by Theophilos "Candidatus" and "Stratopedarch" in
Cappadocia, then in Charsianon. He was a model husband
and an equitable judge, giving alms daily, offering gifts and
fruits to the churches, helping widows and orphans, and, in
a word, practicing all forms of virtues. He died around 840.
Fifth Class Feast.