Saint Isaac (May 30) was a soldier before he became a monk. After he was tonsured, he attained such a degree of spiritual perfection that he was accounted worthy of beholding divine visions. When Saint Isaac heard about how the Emperor Valens had fallen into the Arian heresy and was persecuting the…

Saint Dalmatus served in the army of the holy emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395) and attracted his notice. The saint was soon filled with the desire to dedicate himself to his Lord and Creator. Therefore, sometime between the years 381-383, he left the service of an earthly ruler in order to…

Saint Faustus and his father Dalmatus received the monastic tonsure from Saint Isaac (May 30) at his monastery near Constantinople. Saint Faustus, like his father, had attained the heights of monasticism, and excelled at fasting. Following the death of his father, he succeeded him as igumen of the…

Saint Anthony the Roman was born at Rome in 1067 to rich parents who adhered to the Orthodox Faith, and they raised him in piety. After losing his parents at age 17, he took up the study of the Fathers in the Greek language. Afterwards, he distributed part of his inheritance to the poor, and the…

Saint Razhden the Protomartyr was descended from a noble Persian family. When Holy King Vakhtang Gorgasali married the daughter of the Persian king Hormuzd III Balunducht, the queen took Razhden with her to Georgia. In Kartli Razhden converted to the Christian Faith, and King Vakhtang presented…

Saint Cosmas the Hermit lived during the sixth century in the Pharan wilderness of Palestine. An account of the Bikaneia presbyter Abba Basil about Saint Cosmas is located in the book Spiritual Meadow (Ch. 40) compiled by Saint John Moschus. He was strict of fasting, a firm defender of the Orthodox…

On the Feast of the Annunciation in the year 1625, the Georgians annihilated the army of the Persian shah Abbas I in the Battle of Martqopi. The victory unified Georgia’s eastern provinces of Kartli and Kakheti. It also instilled hope in other enslaved peoples of the Transcaucasus, and…

Saint Theodora was born in Aegina. After her marriage, she and her husband moved to Thessaloniki because of the raids of the Saracens. After her husband's death she entered the Monastery of Saint Stephen with her daughter Theopiste. She lived a life of great virtue and reposed in the year 892.…