www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer Happy St Angela's Day

Dear Alice,

I hope my responding to you here qualifies as "doing something useful" according to Angela!

I think it does . . .

We don't have that tradition in the East Slavic Churches and so use only the personal names of Angels when they are known.

When we do call a girl "Mary" it is always for a saint other than the Mother of God, believe it or not.

In the same way, we would not use "Jesus" to name a boy, although this is a tradition in Latin America.

In the Greek tradition, there are several saints named "Chrestos," New Martyrs I believe.

One of these was a priest who was martyred by the Turks on a Great and Holy Friday in the 19th century - and this with a crown of thorns and crucifixion!

It would sound too fantastic a story if we didn't have the personal eye-witness account of a foreign and non-Christian diplomat who saw the whole thing . . .

Alex

Of course that counts as useful Alex, 'cos I couldn't have made a reply like that to Alice.

I'm not sure how/why I was given my name other than my father was Arthur and my mother Ann - they thought that another 'A' would be a good idea - actually it wasn't Letters to one of us were likely to be opened by another as they tended to come as [ I hope you understand this ] Msquiggle A Gaunt - I tell you it could lead to awkward moments when the letter was opened by the wrong person As a result my daughters were given their own unmistakeable identity !!

After all this this year - I will set to and learn a little more about St Angela of Serbia - and see what I can do about hunting down her Icon to put on my shelf [ which is expanding considerably]

Thank you for your wishes Alice

Anhelyna

Dear Anhelyna,

As Alice said, your name could refer to the Angels.

And since your birthday is you-know-when, it is in the month of the Latin feast of St Michael and all Angels.

But I think you would prefer to stick with your Angelas!

Alex

Dear Alex,

Thanks for the response.

I just found that out on this website recently!

Maria (for the Blessed Virgin Mary) is so intrinsic a name to the Meditarannean countries,(and there is something that Orthodoxy and Catholicism have in common! ) that it is fascinating to find out that other Christian countries don't share the zeal. Although the explanation is commendable.

Yes, Christos is a fairly common name in Greek, as is Christina and Christiana (my own daughter's name), which our neighbors in Italy also use a great deal. These names are for our Lord. My daughter's nameday is on Christmas.

Alice

Dear Alice,

How fascinating!

We celebrate St Christine's Day on August 6th (OC)and this would never refer to our Lord.

In addition, it is BECAUSE of the zeal for our Lady's honour that girls are not named for her, but only indirectly through female saints with the same name

Although I don't think too many in our community would know that and subsequently celebrate their namesday on a Marian feast close to their birthday.

Today is the Western feast of St Alexius of Rome, the Man of God, who is my patron saint.

I celebrate him on March 30th (OC) and he comes a day after my birthday.

There used to be a ban in the Church on celebrating birthdays - it was considered a pagan custom.

The Protestants banned namedays in their desire to stamp out the cult of saints.

That is why they tried to destroy the tradition of St Nicholas giving out gifts on December 6th and, instead, had the Baby Jesus give out gifts on Christmas Day.

Then St Nicholas came back and we know have him giving presents on Christmas Day.

Believe it or not . . .

Alex

Dear Alex,

As usual, thankyou for the interesting 'religious' trivia regarding St. Nicholas! I REALLY like that kind of stuff!!!

In Christ,
Alice

I'm in total agreement Alice - and those are the bits that stick too

Anhelyna

Dear Alice and Anhelyna,

Yes, whenever you would like to know about bits of useless religious trivia, you know who to ask!

Alex