Orthodox saints and name days on March 15

Name days on March 15

Agapios, Agapius, Aristovoulos, Aristoboulos, Aristobulus, Aristovulos, Nikandros, Nicander

Saints and feasts of March 15

• Agapios

  Martyr, Αγάπιος

  St. Agapios was a martyr who suffered at Caesarea in Palestine during the great persecutions at the beginning of the fourth century. Together with several companions, he confessed Christ before the governor and refused every inducement to sacrifice to the idols, and so was put to death for the faith.

  Name days: Agapios, Agapius

• Aristoboulos the Apostle

  Apostle, Αριστόβουλος

  St. Aristoboulos was one of the Seventy Apostles, greeted by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans and, according to tradition, the brother of St. Barnabas. He accompanied St. Paul in his travels and was sent to preach the Gospel in Britain, where he is honored as its first bishop.

  Name days: Aristovoulos, Aristoboulos, Aristobulus, Aristovulos

• Manuel of Sfakia

  Martyr, Μανουήλ ο εκ Σφακίων

  St. Manuel was born in Sfakia in Crete and, taken captive as a child, was forced to accept Islam; escaping to the island of Mykonos, he returned to the Christian faith and lived as a married man. Tradition relates that he was later recognized and denounced on Chios, and when he refused to return to Islam he was beheaded in 1792.

• Nikandros of Egypt

  Martyr, Νίκανδρος

  St. Nikandros was a Christian of Egypt, a physician by profession, who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian. Tradition relates that he was arrested for gathering and burying the bodies of the martyrs, and that he was flayed alive and beheaded for his confession of Christ.

  Name days: Nikandros, Nicander

• Agapios of Kolitsou

  Venerable, Αγάπιος ο εν Κολιτσού

  St. Agapios was a monk of the skete of Kolitsou, near Vatopedi on Mount Athos, in the fifteenth century. Tradition relates that he was carried off by pirates and held as a slave for many years, and that he was miraculously freed by the Mother of God and returned to his elder, who sent him back to convert his former master.

• John in the Well

  Venerable, Ιωάννης ο εν τω φρέατι

  St. John was an ascetic of Egypt who, according to tradition, lived for many years in a dry well near a village, practicing prayer and fasting in complete solitude. He was known for his humility and for the gift of foresight.