Orthodox saints and name days on January 9

Name days on January 9

Polyeuktos, Polyefktos, Antonina

Saints and feasts of January 9

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  Polyeuktos

  Martyr, Πολύευκτος

  St. Polyeuktos was a Roman soldier in Melitene of Armenia in the third century, and is honored as the first martyr of that city. Moved by the faith of his Christian friend Nearchos, he confessed Christ openly, refused to honor the idols, and was beheaded for the Lord he had only newly come to know.

  Name days: Polyeuktos, Polyefktos

• Eustratios the Wonderworker

  Venerable, Ευστράτιος

  St. Eustratios was born in Bithynia and became a monk at the Augaros Monastery on Mount Olympus in the ninth century. He suffered exile during the iconoclast persecution and later governed his monastery for many years, receiving the gift of miracles.

• Peter of Sebaste

  Hierarch, Πέτρος Σεβαστείας

  St. Peter was the youngest brother of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa, raised by their sister St. Makrina. He became abbot of the monastery founded by Basil on the river Iris and later Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia.

• Antonina of Nicomedia

  Holy Woman, Αντωνίνα

  St. Antonina was a Christian woman of Nicomedia who confessed Christ during the persecutions. Tradition relates that after torture she was sewn into a sack and cast into the sea.

  Name days: Antonina

• Philip of Moscow

  Hierarch, Φίλιππος Μόσχας

  St. Philip was abbot of the Solovki Monastery and became Metropolitan of Moscow in 1566. He openly denounced the cruelty of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his oprichniki, refusing him a blessing in the cathedral, and for this was deposed and imprisoned.