Orthodox saints and name days on December 29

Name days on December 29

Markellos, Marcellus, Marcello

Saints and feasts of December 29

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  Holy Innocents of Bethlehem

  Martyr, Άγια Νήπια

  The Holy Innocents are the young children of Bethlehem and its borders slain by King Herod, who, fearing the newborn King announced by the Magi, ordered the death of all the male children of two years and under. The Gospel sees in their death the fulfillment of the prophecy of Rachel weeping for her children, and the Church numbers them by tradition at fourteen thousand.

• Marcellus of the Unsleeping Ones

  Venerable, Μάρκελλος

  Venerable Marcellus was born in Apamea in Syria in the fifth century and became a monk of the monastery of the Akoimetoi, the Unsleeping Ones, near Constantinople, where the praise of God was sung without ceasing day and night. Chosen abbot, he governed the brotherhood with wisdom and took part in the struggles of the Church for the Orthodox faith. He reposed in peace.

  Name days: Markellos, Marcellus, Marcello

• George of Nicomedia

  Hierarch, Γεώργιος Νικομηδείας

  George was a cleric of the Great Church of Constantinople in the ninth century and a friend of St. Photios, and was later made Bishop of Nicomedia. He is remembered as a composer of canons and hymns still sung in the services of the Church, and reposed in peace.

• Thaddeus of Studion

  Venerable, Θαδδαίος ο Ομολογητής

  Venerable Thaddeus was a monk of the Studion monastery in the time of St. Theodore the Studite. For refusing to trample on an icon of Christ at the command of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Armenian he was beaten so severely that he died of his wounds a few days later, in the early ninth century.

• All Christians Martyred by Hunger, Cold and the Sword

  Saint, Πάντες οι Χριστιανοί οι μαρτυρικώς τελειωθέντες

  On this day, alongside the Holy Innocents, the Church remembers all Christians who through the ages have given their lives for the glory of Christ by hunger, thirst, freezing and the sword, whose names are known to God alone.