Orthodox saints and name days on January 4

Name days on January 4

Anastasia, Nastia, Natasha, Stacy, Apollinaria, Theoktistos, Theoctistus

Saints and feasts of January 4

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  Anastasia

  Holy Woman, Αναστασία

  St. Anastasia was a holy woman and martyr of Rome who gave her life for Christ during the persecutions of the early Church. The synaxaria preserve little of her story beyond her faithful confession, but her name, which means resurrection, has been cherished by the faithful as a sign of the hope for which she died.

  Name days: Anastasia, Nastia, Natasha, Stacy

• Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles

  Apostle, Εβδομήκοντα Απόστολοι

  The Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles gathers into one feast all those disciples whom the Lord sent out two by two before Him, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, together with the fellow-workers of the Twelve named in the Epistles.

• Apollinaria the Senator's Daughter

  Holy Woman, Απολλιναρία

  St. Apollinaria was the daughter of a Roman official of high rank in the fifth century. Tradition relates that she fled the world, disguised herself as a man, and lived as a monk in the Egyptian desert under the name Dorotheos, her identity being discovered only after her repose.

  Name days: Apollinaria

• Nikephoros the Leper

  Venerable, Νικηφόρος ο Λεπρός

  St. Nikephoros the Leper was born in Crete in 1890 and contracted leprosy as a youth. He became a monk and spent decades in the leper colony of Chios and later in Athens, blinded and crippled by his disease, yet radiant with patience, prayer, and joy.

• Euthymios of Vatopedi and the Twelve Monks

  Martyr, Ευθύμιος ο Βατοπεδινός

  St. Euthymios was abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos in the thirteenth century. When the Latinizing party under Michael VIII sought to impose the union with Rome on the Holy Mountain, he and twelve of his monks refused; tradition relates that he was drowned and the others hanged.

• Onouphrios the New of Hilandar

  Martyr, Ονούφριος ο Νέος

  St. Onouphrios was born in Bulgaria and became a monk at the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. Having once as a child spoken words of denial in anger, he sought to atone by open confession, and with the blessing of his elders went to Chios, where he was beheaded for Christ in 1818.

• Theoktistos of Cucomo

  Venerable, Θεόκτιστος

  St. Theoktistos was abbot of a monastery at Cucomo in Sicily and reposed in peace in the ninth century. The synaxaria remember him for his ascetic life and the guidance he gave his brotherhood.

  Name days: Theoktistos, Theoctistus