I am looking for information on the Saints whos' Icons are on our iconostasis.

I have found some information on a couple of them but I will tell you who they all are.

Starting on the left, next to the Mother of God is St Nicholas, who the church is named for, St Romano, then St Justin.

On the right, next to our Lord is St John the Baptist, St Ephraim, then St Helen.

I have not been able to find anything on St Romano or St Helen.

Any help would be greatly appericated.

Your little brother in Christ,
David

You must not have looked very hard. ST. Helena was the mother of Constantine. She found the True Cross (The Feast we celebrate every Sept. 15th)Remember. St. Romanus the Melodist composed some of our canons.

There are several saints web pages on the internet. Just do a search.

St. Romanos' feast day is Oct. 1. Because of this, he always gets trumped by the Theotokos, but somehow I don't think he minds.

St. Romanos is patron of cantors.

Cheers,

Sharon

Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

Hey David,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Here we go...

1. St. Nicholas:
Bishop of Myra, in present day Turkey. Famed for his generosity and his defense of Christ's divinity against the Arian heresy. He even punched the arch-heretic Arius at the Council of Nicea! The character of Santa Claus is based on him. He is the patron of the Byzantine Catholic Church.

2. St. Romanos the hymnographer.
He was an Easern monk with very little musical ability. Reportedly, the other monks mocked him because of his poor singing voice. One day in prayer God granted him the gift of musical genius. He then composed the Kontakion that are sung at Divine Liturgies to this very day.

3. St. Justin
He was a famous philosopher from northern Israel. He was a Samaritan. He converted to Christianity, and began writing and teaching on the "philosophy" of Christianity. He remained a layman throughout his life, but dressed in the robes of a Greek philosopher. He was subsequently martyred for his faith.

4. St. Ephraim
He was a famous Syrian poet, writer, and monk. His theology was a major influence on the Eastern Churches, especially the Maronite and Syrian Churches.

5. St. Helen
She was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine was the first Emperor to convert to (and legalize) Christianity. After Constantine's conversion, St. Helen travelled to the Holy Land where she visited the local Christian communities and identified historical sites. She researched the area extensively, and built shrines on sites where important events in the life of Christ occurred.

I hope this helps!
Anthony

Dear Mike,

Please don't take this as a criticism, but I don't think you should have spoken as you did to our friend ("you didn't look very hard").

As someone who has studied saints for over twenty years, I can tell you that no one has ever done the definitive work on any Saint.

I am continually learning about Saints we all know and love, about their lives etc.

There is also much nonsense written about the Saints on the Internet.

For example, one site I visited criticized St Louis of France for a) never showing outward affection to his wife in public and b) leaving her only 4,000 pounds in his will when his father left his widow 32,000.

The fact that people normally did not show outward affection to their spouses in his time period, much less royalty, seemed not to have made an impression on that writer. The fact that St Louis was practically broke from expending all his resources into the Crusades and so had less money to give than his father likewise escaped that gentleman.

We can never say the final word about any Saint, even those we feel everyone knows everything about. There is simply no such thing.

God bless,

Alex

To Alex:

I did not mean to say that their is a definative answer to all of the saints. What I meant was that the young man (I'll assume he is young and does not know how to do research on the net. Many young people do not know how to use a library either. The information is out there. You just have to know where to look.) If he knew how to use the internet, he just had to do a search, and he could have easily found the information.

I have studied the saints for 30 years too. As a matter of fact, I have over 6,000 holy cards of different saints. Yes, there is a lot of mis-information and dishonoring the Saints. Just as you mentioned about St. Louis of France. These people lived a long time ago, they lived in the times that they lived. So now people critize them looking at themm through 21st century glasses. St. Paul was a woman hater, St. Maximilian Kolbe was anti-semitic, etc.

Alex,
Thank you for jumping to my defense.

Mike,
Now you are assuming as to who and what I am.

I did take offence at your condescending remark. It was uncalled for. I asked for assistance. I do know how to do research on the net. I even tried, albeit I could have tried harder. But why should I when I know that there are many people here that could supply the information I was interested it. As a matter of fact this is one of the places I turn to when I want to find truthful information regarding Byzantine/Orthodox things.


Your little brother in Christ,
David

Dear David,

You are most welcome, my dear brother in Christ!

But you are right, after all.

I have learned so many things from reading the posts on this Forum that I have not found in books, journals or elsewhere on the internet.

Why not ask for comments from such a well-read group of the theologically inclined?

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Alex