Orthodox saints and name days on December 26

Name days on December 26

Emmanuel, Emmanouil, Manolis, Manos, Manuel, Maria, Mary, Maro, Marianna, Panagiota, Emmanouela, Emmanuela, Manuela, David, Davit, Joseph, Iosif, Iossif, Josef

Saints and feasts of December 26

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  Synaxis of the Theotokos

  Great Feast, Σύναξη Θεοτόκου

  On the day after the Nativity of Christ, the Church gathers in synaxis to honor the Most Holy Theotokos, from whom the Saviour was born in the flesh. Having celebrated the birth of the Lord, the faithful turn with gratitude to His Mother, through whose obedience the Incarnation came to pass.

  Name days: Emmanuel, Emmanouil, Manolis, Manos, Manuel, Maria, Mary, Maro, Marianna, Panagiota, Emmanouela, Emmanuela, Manuela

• King David, Joseph, James

  Saint, Δαβίδ, Ιωσήφ, Ιάκωβος

  On the Sunday after the Nativity the Church keeps the synaxis of three holy kinsmen of the Lord according to the flesh: David the Prophet and King, from whose line the Messiah was born; Joseph the Betrothed, the righteous elder who guarded the Virgin and the Christ Child and led them to safety in Egypt; and James the Brother of the Lord, first Bishop of Jerusalem.

  Name days: David, Davit, Joseph, Iosif, Iossif, Josef

• Euthymius of Sardis

  Hierarch, Ευθύμιος Σάρδεων

  The hieromartyr Euthymius was Bishop of Sardis in the eighth and ninth centuries and a steadfast defender of the holy icons. Exiled repeatedly under the iconoclast emperors, he was scourged so cruelly in the reign of Theophilos that he died of his wounds in 831.

• Flight into Egypt

  Saint, Φυγή εις Αίγυπτον

  On the day after the Nativity the Church remembers how Joseph, warned by an angel, took the Child and His Mother and fled into Egypt from the wrath of Herod, and remained there until the death of the king, that the word of the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt have I called My Son.

• Constantine the Jew

  Venerable, Κωνσταντίνος ο εξ Ιουδαίων

  Venerable Constantine was born to a Jewish family of Synnada in Phrygia in the ninth century and came to faith in Christ, receiving baptism and becoming a monk on Mount Olympus in Bithynia. Tradition relates that he travelled to Cyprus and other places, working miracles, and reposed in peace.

• Evarestus of Studion

  Venerable, Ευάρεστος

  Venerable Evarestus was born in Galatia in the ninth century and became a monk of the Studion monastery in Constantinople, where he lived in strict asceticism and reposed in peace.

• Constantius the Russian

  Martyr, Κωνστάντιος ο Ρώσος

  The new martyr Constantius was a Russian hieromonk of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos who served as a chaplain in Constantinople. Tradition relates that he fell into apostasy, repented bitterly on the Holy Mountain, and returned to Constantinople to confess Christ, where he was beheaded in 1743.

• Nikodemos of Tismana

  Venerable, Νικόδημος της Τισμάνα

  Venerable Nikodemos was a monk of Mount Athos of Serbian origin who in the fourteenth century founded the monasteries of Vodita and Tismana in Wallachia, establishing organised monastic life in the Romanian lands. He reposed in peace in 1406 and is honoured by the Church of Romania.