Orthodox saints and name days on March 12

Name days on March 12

Theofanis, Theophanis, Theophanes

Saints and feasts of March 12

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  Theophanes the Confessor

  Venerable, Θεοφάνης

  St. Theophanes the Confessor was born in Constantinople in the eighth century to a noble family. Renouncing wealth and worldly marriage, he embraced the monastic life and founded a monastery, where he became famed for asceticism and learning; his great chronicle of world history earned him the title Chronographer.

  Name days: Theofanis, Theophanis, Theophanes

• Gregory the Dialogist

  Hierarch, Γρηγόριος ο Διάλογος

  St. Gregory the Dialogist, or Gregory the Great, was born in Rome in the sixth century of a senatorial family, served as prefect of the city, and then gave up everything to become a monk. Against his will he was made Pope of Rome in 590, and he governed the Church with great pastoral wisdom in a time of plague, famine and invasion.

• Symeon the New Theologian

  Venerable, Συμεών ο Νέος Θεολόγος

  St. Symeon the New Theologian was born in Paphlagonia in 949 and, as a young man in Constantinople, came under the guidance of the elder Symeon the Pious of the Studion monastery. He became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas, where he taught that every Christian is called to a conscious experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and he wrote hymns and discourses of extraordinary boldness on the vision of the divine light.

• Phineas the Righteous

  Saint, Φινεές

  The righteous Phineas was the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the high priest, whose story is told in the Book of Numbers. His zeal for the law of God in the wilderness turned away the wrath of the Lord from Israel, and God gave him and his descendants the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.

• Aaron the Prophet

  Prophet, Ααρών

  The holy prophet Aaron was the elder brother of Moses and his spokesman before Pharaoh, and by God's command he was consecrated the first high priest of Israel. His rod that budded was kept in the Ark of the Covenant, and the Church sees in it a figure of the Mother of God.

• Demetrios of Georgia

  Saint, Δημήτριος της Γεωργίας

  St. Demetrios II, called the Self-Sacrificing, was King of Georgia in the thirteenth century under the domination of the Mongols. When the Mongol khan summoned him under threat of devastating his country, he chose to go, knowing that it meant his death, in order to spare his people.