John of Monagria, Monk-Martyr

Monk-Martyr John, abbot of the monastery of Monagria, drowned by the iconoclasts for venerating the holy icons.

Saint John was abbot of the monastery of Monagria near Kyzikos in the eighth century. During the iconoclast persecution he refused to renounce the veneration of the holy icons, and tradition relates that he was sewn into a sack and cast into the sea.

Feast day

On the New Calendar, John of Monagria, Monk-Martyr is commemorated on June 4. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on June 17 of the civil calendar.

Also commemorated on June 4

• 

  Metrophanes of Constantinople

  Hierarch, Μητροφάνης

  First Patriarch of Constantinople.

  Name days: Mitrofanis

• Martha and Mary, Sisters of Lazarus

  Holy Woman, Μάρθα και Μαρία

  Righteous Martha and Mary of Bethany, the sisters of Lazarus, friends and disciples of the Lord.

  Name days: Martha, Marta

• Sophia of Ainos

  Holy Woman, Σοφία η εξ Αίνου

  Venerable Sophia of Ainos in Thrace, a mother of six who became an ascetic and mother to orphans.

• Alonius the Venerable

  Venerable, Αλώνιος

  Venerable Alonius of Egypt, a desert father whose sayings are preserved in the Apophthegmata.

• Zoticus, Attalus, Kamasis and Philip of Niculitel

  Martyr, Ζωτικός, Άτταλος, Κάμασις και Φίλιππος

  Holy Martyrs Zoticus, Attalus, Kamasis and Philip, who suffered at Noviodunum in Scythia Minor.

• Methodius of Peshnosha

  Venerable, Μεθόδιος ο εκ Ρωσίας

  Venerable Methodius, abbot of Peshnosha, a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh.