Venerable Bessarion the Great, wonderworker of Egypt.
St. Bessarion was an Egyptian who became a disciple of St. Anthony the Great and St. Makarios and lived as a wanderer in the desert, owning nothing and sleeping in the open. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers preserve his words and record that he stood forty days and nights in prayer without sleep.
He was granted the gift of miracles, including walking across the Nile and turning salt water sweet, and reposed in peace in the fifth century.
Feast day
On the New Calendar, Bessarion the Great is commemorated on February 20. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on March 5 (a day earlier in leap years) of the civil calendar.
Who celebrates a name day
People with these names keep their name day on this feast:
Also commemorated on February 20
Agathon of Rome
Hierarch, Αγάθων Ρώμης
St. Agathon, Pope of Rome, defender of Orthodoxy against Monothelitism.
Sadok and the 128 Martyrs
Hierarch, Σαδώκ και οι συν αυτώ
Hieromartyr Sadok, Bishop of Persia, and the 128 Martyrs with him.
Cornelius of the Pskov Caves
Venerable, Κορνήλιος του Πσκωφ
Venerable Martyr Cornelius, Abbot of the Pskov Caves Monastery.
The calendar, on your phone each morning
Today’s saints, whether it is a fast day, and the people in your contacts who have a name day. Free, with no ads.
