Orthodox saints and name days on December 4

Name days on December 4

Varvara, Varoula, Babs, Barb, Barbie, Barbara, Damaskinos, Serafeim, Seraphim, Serafim

Saints and feasts of December 4

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  Barbara the Great Martyr

  Martyr, Βαρβάρα η Μεγαλομάρτυς

  St. Barbara the Great Martyr lived in the late third century. According to tradition, she was the daughter of a wealthy pagan, Dioskoros, who confined her in a tower; coming to faith in Christ, she confessed Him openly, and after cruel tortures she was put to death by her own father, upon whom judgment swiftly fell.

  Name days: Varvara, Varoula, Babs, Barb, Barbie, Barbara

• John of Damascus

  Venerable, Ιωάννης ο Δαμασκηνός

  Venerable John was born in Damascus in the seventh century to a Christian family in the service of the caliph. Leaving the world, he became a monk of the Lavra of St. Sabas near Jerusalem, where he wrote his great works in defence of the holy icons and his summary of the Orthodox faith.

  Name days: Damaskinos

• Seraphim of Phanarion

  Hierarch, Σεραφείμ Φαναρίου

  The hieromartyr Seraphim was born in Thessaly and became a monk and later abbot of a monastery near Agrafa before being made Archbishop of Phanarion and Neochorion. When an uprising against the Ottomans failed in 1601, he was seized though he had no part in it, and was tortured and put to death for refusing to deny Christ.

  Name days: Serafeim, Seraphim, Serafim

• Juliana of Heliopolis

  Holy Woman, Ιουλιανή

  The holy martyr Juliana was a Christian woman of Heliopolis who witnessed the sufferings of the great martyr Barbara. Moved by her courage, she openly confessed Christ and was seized and tormented together with her, and the two were beheaded on the same day.

• John of Polybotum

  Hierarch, Ιωάννης Πολυβότου

  John was Bishop of Polybotum in Phrygia in the eighth century, in the days of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian. He boldly confessed the veneration of the holy icons and was renowned as a wonderworker both during his life and after his repose.

• Christodoulos and Christodouli

  Martyr, Χριστόδουλος και Χριστοδούλη

  The holy martyrs Christodoulos and Christodouli the Virgin are remembered by the Greek Synaxarion on this day. Tradition records that they confessed Christ and were perfected by the sword.