Orthodox saints and name days on December 2

Name days on December 2

Avakum, Ambakum, Myropi, Myrope, Miropi, Porfyrios, Porphyrios, Porfyris, Solomon

Saints and feasts of December 2

• 

  Habakkuk the Prophet

  Prophet, Αββακούμ

  The holy prophet Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament. Troubled by the prosperity of the wicked, he questioned God and stood upon his watch to await the answer, receiving the word that the righteous shall live by his faith. His prayer, the canticle beginning Lord, I have heard Thy report and was afraid, is sung in the Church as one of the biblical odes of matins.

  Name days: Avakum, Ambakum

• Myrope of Chios

  Holy Woman, Μυρώπη

  The holy martyr Myrope was born in Ephesus and lived on the island of Chios in the third century, where she devoted herself to prayer and to anointing the tombs of the martyrs with myrrh, from which she took her name. When the soldier Isidore was martyred on Chios, she secretly took his body and buried it with honour.

  Name days: Myropi, Myrope, Miropi

• Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

  Venerable, Πορφύριος ο Καυσοκαλυβίτης

  Venerable Porphyrios was born in Evia in 1906 and as a boy fled to the Holy Mountain, where he lived in obedience at Kavsokalyvia and received, according to his own account, the gift of spiritual insight. Illness forced him to return to the world, and for many years he served as a priest at a hospital chapel in the heart of Athens, receiving countless people in confession.

  Name days: Porfyrios, Porphyrios, Porfyris

• Solomon of Ephesus

  Hierarch, Σολομών Εφέσου

  Solomon was Archbishop of Ephesus, the ancient see of the Apostle John. The Synaxarion records that he governed his church in piety and reposed in peace.

  Name days: Solomon

• John, Heraclemon, Andrew and Theophilus of Egypt

  Venerable, Ιωάννης, Ηρακλείμων, Ανδρέας και Θεόφιλος

  These four venerable hermits lived in the Egyptian desert in the fourth century. Tradition relates that they were found by the monk Paphnutius, who recorded how they had left the world together as young men and lived for many decades in the wilderness, nourished by God and praying without ceasing.

• Cyril Phileotes

  Venerable, Κύριλλος ο Φιλεώτης

  Venerable Cyril was born in the village of Philea in Thrace in the eleventh century. Though married, he lived a life of great austerity, working as a sailor and later withdrawing to a life of prayer near his home, where a small community gathered around him.

• Athanasius the Recluse of the Kiev Caves

  Venerable, Αθανάσιος ο Έγκλειστος

  Venerable Athanasius was a monk of the Kiev Caves Lavra in the twelfth century. Tradition relates that after a long illness he died and lay unburied for two days, and then rose again to the astonishment of the brethren, answering all their questions only with the words 'Repent'. He then shut himself in a cave, where he lived in silence and prayer for many years until his repose.