Orthodox saints and name days on April 3

Name days on April 3

Nikitas, Nicetas, Elpidoforos, Elpidophoros, Elpidiforos

Saints and feasts of April 3

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  Nicetas the Confessor

  Venerable, Νικήτας

  St. Nicetas the Confessor was abbot of the monastery of Medikion in Bithynia in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. A gentle father to his monks, he guided his community in prayer and asceticism until the renewal of iconoclasm, when he refused to reject the holy icons and was imprisoned and exiled by the emperor.

  Name days: Nikitas, Nicetas

• Joseph the Hymnographer

  Venerable, Ιωσήφ ο Υμνογράφος

  Joseph was born in Sicily in the ninth century and, fleeing the Arab invasions, became a monk in Thessalonica and later in Constantinople. Sent on a mission to Rome, he was captured by pirates and held on Crete, where tradition relates he strengthened the faith of his fellow captives.

• Elpidephoros, Dius, Bithonius and Galycus

  Martyr, Ελπιδηφόρος, Δίος, Βυθόνιος και Γάλυκος

  These four martyrs are commemorated together in the synaxaria. Tradition relates that each met a different death for the faith: Elpidephoros was beheaded, Dius was stoned, Bithonius was drowned in the sea, and Galycus was given to wild beasts.

  Name days: Elpidoforos, Elpidophoros, Elpidiforos

• Illyrios of Mount Myrsinon

  Venerable, Ιλλύριος

  Illyrios devoted himself to ascetic struggle on Mount Myrsinon in the Peloponnese, where he is remembered as a wonderworker. The dates of his life are not known.

• Paul the Russian

  Martyr, Παύλος ο Ρώσος

  Paul was a Russian who had been taken captive by the Tatars and sold into slavery in Constantinople, where he was later ransomed and set free. Tradition relates that he was subject to fits, and during one of them Turks claimed he had professed Islam.

• Agape the Virgin Martyr

  Holy Woman, Αγάπη η Παρθενομάρτυς

  Agape is listed in the Greek synaxaria as a virgin martyr commemorated on the third of April. Little of her life has been preserved beyond her name and her witness.