Orthodox saints and name days on September 23

Name days on September 23

Xanthippe, Xanthippi, Polyxene, Polyxeni, Polyxenia, Polixeni, Xanthi, Rais, Irais

Saints and feasts of September 23

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  Conception of John the Baptist

  Great Feast, Σύλληψη Ιωάννου

  On September 23 the Church commemorates the conception of St. John the Forerunner. As the priest Zacharias served in the Temple, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him at the altar of incense, announcing that his prayer was heard and that his wife Elizabeth, barren and advanced in years, would bear a son who would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. Because Zacharias doubted, he was left mute until the child was born.

• Xanthippe and Polyxene

  Holy Woman, Ξανθίππη και Πολυξένη

  Sts. Xanthippe and Polyxene were sisters of Spain in the apostolic age. Tradition relates that Xanthippe, wife of a governor, received the faith from the Apostle Paul when he preached in Spain, and that Polyxene, carried off to the East, was baptized by the Apostle Andrew and returned to Spain with the Apostle Onesimos.

  Name days: Xanthippe, Xanthippi, Polyxene, Polyxeni, Polyxenia, Polixeni, Xanthi

• Rais of Alexandria

  Holy Woman, Ραΐς

  St. Rais was a young Christian woman of Alexandria who, seeing a company of Christians in chains being led to the ship that would carry them to trial, freely joined them and confessed Christ. She was beheaded with them in Egypt in the persecution of the early fourth century.

  Name days: Rais, Irais

• Nicholas the Grocer of Karpenisi

  Martyr, Νικόλαος ο Παντοπώλης

  St. Nicholas was a youth of Karpenisi who worked in his father's grocery in Constantinople. Tradition relates that a Turkish teacher, to whom he went for lessons, tricked him into pronouncing the Muslim confession and then denounced him; before the judge Nicholas denied that he had ever left Christ.

• Andrew, John, Peter and Antony of Syracuse

  Martyr, Ανδρέας, Ιωάννης, Πέτρος και Αντώνιος

  The holy martyrs Andrew, John and John's young sons Peter and Antony were Christians of Syracuse in Sicily taken captive when the city fell to the Saracens in the ninth century. Carried to Africa, they refused to renounce Christ and were put to death by the ruler Ibrahim.

• John the New Martyr of Konitsa

  Martyr, Ιωάννης ο εξ Αγαρηνών

  St. John was born a Muslim at Konitsa in Epirus, the son of a dervish, and served in the army of Ali Pasha. Coming to believe in Christ, he was baptized and lived as a farmer near Vrachori, the present Agrinio, where he was recognized, arrested and, refusing to return to Islam, beheaded in 1814.