Orthodox saints and name days on September 16

Name days on September 16

Efimia, Efimi, Euphemia, Melitini, Melitina, Melitine, Melina, Ludmila, Ludmilla, Lyudmila, Liudmila, Ninian

Saints and feasts of September 16

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  Euphemia the All-Praised (2nd)

  Martyr, Ευφημία

  St. Euphemia the All-Praised was a virgin of Chalcedon who suffered martyrdom during the persecution under Diocletian at the beginning of the fourth century. Refusing to join in pagan sacrifice, she endured many tortures and committed her soul to God, receiving the crown of martyrdom in her native city.

  Name days: Efimia, Efimi, Euphemia

• Melitini of Marcianopolis

  Holy Woman, Μελιτίνη

  St. Melitini was a Christian woman of Marcianopolis in Thrace who confessed Christ in the second century under the governor Antiochus. Tradition relates that by her prayer the idols fell to the ground, and that the governor's wife was converted by her witness.

  Name days: Melitini, Melitina, Melitine, Melina

• Ludmila of Bohemia

  Holy Woman, Λουντμίλα

  St. Ludmila was a princess of Bohemia baptized, according to tradition, by St. Methodius, and with her husband Borivoj she spread the Christian faith among the Czechs. She raised her grandson St. Wenceslaus in piety.

  Name days: Ludmila, Ludmilla, Lyudmila, Liudmila

• Dorotheos the Hermit of Egypt

  Venerable, Δωρόθεος ο Ερημίτης

  St. Dorotheos was a hermit of the Egyptian desert in the fourth century who spent some sixty years in a cell near Alexandria, gathering stones in the heat of the day to build cells for other monks and eating only a little bread and herbs. His disciple Palladius recorded his life.

• Cyprian of Kiev and Moscow

  Hierarch, Κυπριανός Κιέβου

  St. Cyprian was born at Tarnovo in Bulgaria in the fourteenth century and lived as a monk on Mount Athos and at Constantinople, a disciple of the hesychast Patriarch Philotheos. Sent as metropolitan to Kiev and later received in Moscow, he labored to unite the Russian Church and enriched it with liturgical translations and hesychast teaching.

• Basil of Gortyna

  Hierarch, Βασίλειος Γορτύνης

  St. Basil was bishop of Gortyna in Crete in the eighth century, in the days of the iconoclast controversy. He is remembered for his defense of the veneration of the holy icons and his care for his flock.

• Ninian of Whithorn

  Hierarch, Νινιανός

  St. Ninian was a Briton of the fourth and fifth centuries who, tradition relates, studied in Rome and was sent as bishop to his people. He built a stone church at Whithorn in Galloway, called Candida Casa, and from it preached Christ to the southern Picts.

  Name days: Ninian