Orthodox saints and name days on May 2

Name days on May 2

Athanasios, Thanassis, Thanos, Nasis, Athanasius, Hesperos, Esperos, Theodoulos, Theodulus, Zoe, Zoi, Zoey, Matrona, Boris, Iordanis, Jordan, Jordanis

Saints and feasts of May 2

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  Athanasios of Alexandria

  Hierarch, Αθανάσιος ο Μέγας

  St. Athanasios the Great was Archbishop of Alexandria in the fourth century and the foremost defender of the divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy. Present at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea as a young deacon, he spent the rest of his life upholding the Nicene faith, enduring five exiles rather than yield.

  Name days: Athanasios, Thanassis, Thanos, Nasis, Athanasius

• Hesperos and Zoe with their sons Kyriakos and Theodoulos

  Martyr, Έσπερος, Ζωή, Κυριάκος και Θεόδουλος

  Hesperos and Zoe were Christian slaves of a pagan master in Attalia of Pamphylia in the second century, and raised their two sons Kyriakos and Theodoulos in the faith. When the family refused to eat food offered to idols, the master had them tortured.

  Name days: Hesperos, Esperos, Theodoulos, Theodulus, Zoe, Zoi, Zoey

• Matrona of Moscow

  Holy Woman, Ματρώνα η Μοσχοβίτισσα

  Matrona Nikonova was born blind in a village of the Tula region in the 1880s. From childhood she showed unusual spiritual insight, and people came to her for prayer and counsel. Later she lost the use of her legs and lived in Moscow, moving from house to house through the years of persecution.

  Name days: Matrona

• Boris the Baptizer of Bulgaria

  Apostle, Βόρις-Μιχαήλ ο Ισαπόστολος

  Boris ruled Bulgaria in the ninth century and received baptism from Constantinople, taking the name Michael. He led his nobles and people into the Church, welcomed the disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodios, and fostered the Slavonic liturgy and letters.

  Name days: Boris

• Basil the Blessed of Moscow

  Venerable, Βασίλειος ο διά Χριστόν Σαλός

  Basil was born near Moscow in the late fifteenth century and, while apprenticed to a shoemaker, took up the ascetic path of folly for Christ. He went about the city barefoot in all seasons, owning nothing and speaking hard truths to the powerful, including Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who nonetheless revered him.

• Jordan the Wonderworker

  Venerable, Ιορδάνης ο Θαυματουργός

  Little is recorded of Venerable Jordan beyond his name and the note that he was a monk who reposed in peace and was granted the gift of working wonders. The synaxarion honors him briefly on May 2.

  Name days: Iordanis, Jordan, Jordanis