Saint Hilarion the Great was born to pagan parents in the year 291 in the Palestinian village of Thabatha near Gaza. As a young man, he was sent to Alexandria for his education. There he became acquainted with Christianity and was baptized. After hearing an account of the angelic life of Saint…

The Transfer of the Relics of Saint Hilarion, Bishop of Meglin, to the Bulgarian city of Trnovo, occurred in the year 1206. Prior to this event, the body of the saint rested in the city of Meglin. Saint Hilarion received a fine Christian upbringing. At eighteen, he entered a monastery. Because of…

Saint Hilarion, Schemamonk of Kiev Caves, a strict ascetic, was a disciple and co-ascetic with Saint Theodosius (May 3). Imitating the example of his teacher, Saint Hilarion prayed to God with tears day and night, while observing a strict fast. His contemporaries knew him as a chronicler, who…

Saint Hilarion of Gdov and Pskov Lake, was a disciple of Saint Euphrosynus of Pskov (May 15). In 1460 on the banks of the River Zhelcha, not far from Gdov, he founded the Ozersk [Lake] Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God. The monastery bordered the territory of the Livonian Knights,…

Saint Theophilus and James, Abbots of Omutch in Pskov, lived the ascetic life on the island of Konev together with Saint Arsenius (June 12). In the year 1396, in the Pskov diocese at the River Omutch, not far from the city of Porkhov, Saints Theophilus and James established a wilderness monastery…

The Martyrs Gaius, Dasius, and Zoticus of Nicomedia suffered martyrdom in the year 303, under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), because they destroyed a pagan temple. After enduring many tortures, they had stones tied around their necks, and were drowned in the sea.

Saint Philotheos of Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos was a native of Elateia, and was born in 1526. Fearing the Turks, his parents moved away to Chrysoupolis in Macedonia, where his father soon died. The child Philotheos and his brother were seized by the Turks and then thrown into prison. They…

Saint Bessarion (Sarai) was a Serb who was born in Bosnia in 1714. Longing for the monastic life, he was tonsured at the Monastery of Saint Savva in the Holy Land in 1738. He returned to Serbia and lived in a cave for several years as a hesychast, and received from God the grace of working…

Saint Sophronius was originally from Ciorara-Sebesh in Alba county in Romania. From his childhood, he demonstrated a great love for Christ and the Church, so it was not surprising that he eventually received the monastic tonsure. He returned to his village in 1756, and established a small hermitage…

Saint Oprea Nicholas of Salistie suffered martyrdom in Romania at the hands of Roman Catholics in 1776.

Saint Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev, lived during the era of the Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise (+ 1054), son of Saint Vladimir. In the history of the Russian Church he is remembered as the first Russian installed as Metropolitan by a Council of Russian bishops. The Russian Church up to that time…

Saint Moses Macinic was ordained to the holy priesthood in Bucharest around 1746, and worked to oppose the Unia. Because of his activities he was arrested and jailed in Sibiu for seventeen months. Ultimately, he was released with the understanding that he would cease to function as a priest, and…

Saint John of Galesh was a priest who was consecrated bishop at Bucharest, since there was no bishop for Transylvania. He resisted the plans of the Hapsburg authorities to persuade Orthodox Christians to convert to Catholicism. He was arrested and thrown into prison at Sibiu in 1756, then Empress…