Orthodox saints and name days on May 20

Name days on May 20

Lydia, Lidia, Thalelaios, Thalleleos, Thaleleos, Thallelaeus, Thalassios, Asterios, Asterius

Saints and feasts of May 20

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  Lydia of Philippi

  Holy Woman, Λυδία

  St. Lydia of Philippi holds a beloved place in the Church as the first person baptized by the Apostle Paul on European soil. A seller of purple goods from Thyatira, she was a devout worshipper of God, and as she listened to Paul by the riverside at Philippi the Lord opened her heart to receive the Gospel. She was baptized with her whole household and welcomed the Apostles into her home.

  Name days: Lydia, Lidia

• Thalleleos the Unmercenary

  Martyr, Θαλλέλαιος ο Ανάργυρος

  Thalleleos was a young physician from Lebanon who treated the sick without payment and led many to Christ. Arrested at Aegae in Cilicia under the Emperor Numerian, he was subjected to tortures which, tradition relates, turned back upon his tormentors.

  Name days: Thalelaios, Thalleleos, Thaleleos, Thallelaeus

• Founders of Nea Moni: Niketas, John and Joseph

  Venerable, Νικήτας, Ιωάννης και Ιωσήφ της Νέας Μονής Χίου

  Niketas, John and Joseph were hermits on Mount Provateion in Chios in the eleventh century. Tradition relates that they found an icon of the Theotokos hanging in a myrtle tree and, foretelling the rise of Constantine Monomachos to the throne, received from him the means to build the Nea Moni.

• Thalassios the Libyan

  Venerable, Θαλάσσιος

  Thalassios was abbot of a monastery in Libya in the seventh century and a correspondent of Saint Maximos the Confessor, who dedicated several works to him. His own Four Centuries on love, self-control and the life of the mind are included in the Philokalia.

  Name days: Thalassios

• Alexander and Asterios

  Martyr, Αλέξανδρος και Αστέριος

  Alexander and Asterios were among the executioners of Saint Thalleleos at Aegae who, seeing the wonders that accompanied his torments, confessed Christ themselves.

  Name days: Asterios, Asterius

• Translation of the Relics of Nicholas to Bari

  Saint, Ανακομιδή Λειψάνων Αγίου Νικολάου

  In 1087 sailors from Bari carried the relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra in Lycia, then under Turkish threat, to their own city, where a great basilica was raised over them. The relics have continued to exude a fragrant liquid, the manna of Saint Nicholas.

• Zabulon and Sosanna

  Saint, Ζαβουλών και Σωσάννα

  Zabulon, a Cappadocian nobleman related to Saint George, and his wife Sosanna, sister of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, were the parents of Saint Nina. Tradition relates that they gave themselves to the service of God, Zabulon in the wilderness of the Jordan and Sosanna in caring for the poor in Jerusalem.