Orthodox saints and name days on December 16

Name days on December 16

Angeos, Aggaios, Haggai, Theofano, Theophano, Modestos, Modest, Modestus, Marinos

Saints and feasts of December 16

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  Aggaeus the Prophet

  Prophet, Αγγαίος

  The holy prophet Aggaeus, called Haggai in the Hebrew Scriptures, is one of the twelve minor prophets. He prophesied in Jerusalem after the return from the Babylonian captivity, stirring up the people and their leaders to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, and declaring that the glory of the latter house would surpass the former.

  Name days: Angeos, Aggaios, Haggai

• Theophano the Empress

  Holy Woman, Θεοφανώ η Βασίλισσα

  Holy Theophano was the first wife of the emperor Leo the Wise in the ninth century. Amid the splendour and the sorrows of the palace she lived in prayer, fasting and almsgiving, sleeping on the floor and giving her wealth to the poor.

  Name days: Theofano, Theophano

• Modestos of Jerusalem

  Hierarch, Μόδεστος Ιεροσολύμων

  Modestos was Archbishop of Jerusalem in the seventh century. After the Persians sacked the city and carried off the Holy Cross, he laboured to restore the ruined churches and monasteries of the Holy Land, and was formally made patriarch when the Cross was returned.

  Name days: Modestos, Modest, Modestus

• Marinus of Rome

  Martyr, Μαρίνος

  The holy martyr Marinus was a Roman of noble family who confessed Christ in the third century. Tradition relates that he was tortured and beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the idols.

  Name days: Marinos

• Memnon of Ephesus

  Hierarch, Μέμνων Εφέσου

  Memnon was Archbishop of Ephesus, remembered in the Synaxarion as a hierarch who governed his church in piety and reposed in peace. The Church also remembers on this day the martyrs Probus and Hilary.

• Nicholas Chrysoberges

  Hierarch, Νικόλαος Β' Χρυσοβέργης

  Nicholas Chrysoberges was Patriarch of Constantinople in the late tenth century, in the days of the emperor Basil II. He governed the Church with wisdom and reposed in peace in 991.