Orthodox saints and name days on December 30

Name days on December 30

Anysia, Gedeon, Gideon

Saints and feasts of December 30

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  Anysia of Thessaloniki

  Martyr, Ανυσία

  The holy virgin martyr Anysia was a young Christian of Thessaloniki who lived at the turn of the fourth century, in the days of the persecution under Diocletian. Left wealthy by her parents, she gave her goods to the poor and lived in prayer and quietness. On her way to the gathering of the faithful she was stopped by a soldier who tried to drag her to a pagan sacrifice; when she confessed Christ and resisted, he ran her through with his sword.

  Name days: Anysia

• Gideon of Karakalou

  Martyr, Γεδεών ο Νέος Οσιομάρτυς

  The new martyr Gideon was born in Thessaly in the eighteenth century. As a boy he was forced into Islam, but he escaped and became a monk of the monastery of Karakalou on Mount Athos, where he lived for many years in repentance.

  Name days: Gedeon, Gideon

• Theodora of Caesarea

  Holy Woman, Θεοδώρα η από Καισαρείδος

  Venerable Theodora was the daughter of a noble family of Caesarea in Cappadocia in the eighth century. Dedicated to God from childhood, she was taken from the monastery to be married by imperial command, but tradition relates that she escaped and returned to the convent, where she lived in asceticism until her peaceful repose.

• Anysios of Thessalonica

  Hierarch, Ανύσιος Θεσσαλονίκης

  Anysios was Bishop of Thessalonica at the turn of the fifth century, the successor of Ascholius and a friend of St. Ambrose of Milan and St. John Chrysostom, whom he supported in his troubles. He governed his church with wisdom and reposed in peace.

• Philetairos of Nicomedia

  Martyr, Φιλέταιρος

  The holy martyr Philetairos was a Christian of Nicomedia who confessed Christ under Diocletian. Tradition relates that he endured many tortures and exile, and that he brought others to faith before his death.

• Leo the Archimandrite

  Venerable, Λέων ο Αρχιμανδρίτης

  Venerable Leo the Archimandrite is remembered by the Greek Synaxarion on this day as a monastic father who governed his brotherhood in holiness and reposed in peace.

• Macarius of Moscow

  Hierarch, Μακάριος Μόσχας

  Macarius was Metropolitan of Moscow in the sixteenth century, in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. He gathered the lives of the saints and the writings of the Fathers into the Great Menaion, presided over the councils that glorified many Russian saints, and reposed in peace in 1563.