Patron Saints

[Photios]

The St. Benedict thread got me to wondering what Saints does everyone go to the most? Not just your specific patron, but those that you ask for intercessions more than others in you personal prayer life.

Obviously, the Theotokos and St. Photios for me, but I also go to St. Catherine the Great-Martyr, St John the Wonderworker, the Holy Prophet Elijah, St Patrick, and the Archangels Michael, Uriel, and Selaphiel, as well as the Blessed Seraphim of Platina.

I have felt a strong calling lately to investigate warrior saints. I know very little in this direction but I really need to look some up. Any suggestions?

[Moros]

st herman, st michael, st john the wonderworker, st sava, st kosmas aitolos

[Marjorie]

I think we've had a thread like this a while back... but since I don't want to find it I'm all for doing it again. :D

My patron is St. Marina (/Margaret) but I'm just getting to know her right now...

Closer to me are:

The Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
The New Royal Martyr Alexandra (and all the other New Royal Martyrs)
St. Katherine of Alexandria
St. Gabriel the Archangel
St. John the Apostle
The Three Hierarchs (mostly during tests!!!)
St. Mary Magdalene
St. John of Kronstadt
St. Maria Skobtsova
St. Seraphim of Sarov
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (it's amazing how helpful his prayers are when I get impatient or irritated)

I also quite love St. Thérèse of Lisieux and must admit that I rely on St. Anthony of Padua's intercessions when I lose things.

I know I'm forgetting some important ones...

In IC XC,
Marjorie

[Matrona]

St. Nicholas has been helping me find things a lot lately. :)

St. John of Kronstadt has been inspiring to me lately, also.

St. Matrona is my patron, and St. Anna, mother of the Theotokos, is my family patron.

St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, helped me big-time during a period when I was embattled to say the least, and I love him for that. St. John Chrysostom is inspiring to me and his prayers also helped me during that time.

[StChristopherofPalestine]

Just Holy Apostle Thomas and Blessed Seraphim of Platina so far. I've not had much time to investigate many others.

[Emmanuel-A]

I have felt a strong calling lately to investigate warrior saints. I know very little in this direction but I really need to look some up. Any suggestions?

Saint Alexander Nevsky is my favourite "warrior saint".

http://www.roca.org/OA/79/79h.htm

I like Saint Martin of Tours as well, but I don't know if one can see him as a warrior saint since he left the roman army to become a priest and then a bishop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_of_Tours

[Dust and Ashes]

The most Holy Theotokos
St. Seraphim of Sarov (my patron)
St. Anna (wife's patron)
St. Michael the Archangel
St. Blaise of Sebaste

[Photini]

St Silouan the Athonite

[Mary of Bethany]

The Theotokos
St. Mary of Bethany (my patron)
St. Nicholas
St. Seraphim of Sarov
St. Michael the Archangel
St. Monica

those are the ones I ask intercession of the most.

Mary

[nicodemus]

The Theotokos
St. Silouan the Athonite
St. Nectarios
St. Justin Popovic
St. Herman of Alaska
St. Raphael of Brooklyn
St. Isaac of Syria
St. Theophan
The Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion
St. Moses of Ethiopia
St. Cosmas Aitolos
St. Nicholas of Japan
Bl. Joseph the Hesychast

I could go on & on :D

[The Prokeimenon!]

St Moses the Ethiopian
St Katherine
Ss Joachim and Anna
St Romanos the Melodist
St Peter
St Raphael of Brooklyn, St John Maximovich, St Herman, and all the American Saints (and, from time to time, Blessed Seraphim Rose)
St Seraphim of Sarov
St Moses the Prophet and God-Seer
St David the Prohet and King

Moses

[moses916]

Theotokos
St. George
(this if just for now)

[vanshan]

St. John the Wonderworker (my friend gave me some oil from the lampada that burns at his reliquary)
St. Herman
St. Basil, my patron
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

[jsgnpdx]

When I was baptized my priest and I chose Sts Cyprian and Justina (hence my Christian name is Cyprian.)

I have a familal background of occult/satanic type stuff (family was Freemasons going back several centuries, not to mention other things)

People in my congregation loving call the the ghostbusters...I don't go anywhere without them!!:thumbsup:

[Eusebios]

The St. Benedict thread got me to wondering what Saints does everyone go to the most? Not just your specific patron, but those that you ask for intercessions more than others in you personal prayer life.

Obviously, the Theotokos and St. Photios for me, but I also go to St. Catherine the Great-Martyr, St John the Wonderworker, the Holy Prophet Elijah, St Patrick, and the Archangels Michael, Uriel, and Selaphiel, as well as the Blessed Seraphim of Platina.

I have felt a strong calling lately to investigate warrior saints. I know very little in this direction but I really need to look some up. Any suggestions?
For me (us) it is St. Seraphim of Sarov, Xenia of St. Petersburgh, Herman of Alaska, Raphael of Brooklyn, Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycea. Of course the Theotokos is the nearest and dearest as patron of our parish.
In Xp,
Eusebios.
:bow:

[Akathist]

Everyday I ask St. Joseph (the betrothed) to pray for my husband.
I daily ask St. Joseph (or Serbia) to pray for my husband's family and myself as they are Serbian Orthodox and he is their "Sava" or family patrone saint.

Others:
St. Nectarious
St. Seraphim of Sarvov
St. Angelina of Serbia
St. Nicholas

and now that I am "Xenia", St. Xenia of Rome. (Though I am still getting to know her).

I feel closest to St. Nectarious because I have recently read a biography about him. May his name be eternal!

[Facing East]

St. Athanasius, St. Gregory the Theologian, St Vincent of Lerins, and St Patrick. But to be honest - this is one area I am always walking with unsure footing. I just don't understand this part of my new faith. I don't understand when people talk of miracles done by specific saints. I don't condemn it, just don't get it. I have a lot of evangelical baggage. Any advice would be helpful.

[nicodemus]

St. Athanasius, St. Gregory the Theologian, St Vincent of Lerins, and St Patrick. But to be honest - this is one area I am always walking with unsure footing. I just don't understand this part of my new faith. I don't understand when people talk of miracles done by specific saints. I don't condemn it, just don't get it. I have a lot of evangelical baggage. Any advice would be helpful.
It's hard to get over the "evangelical baggage," it certainly took me a long time as well. One of the things that convinced me was when an Orthodox friend of mine greatly injured his foot by stepping on a broken bottle on the beach. He had muscle damage, nerve damage, etc. They said it would be months before he could walk again and that he'd have to have multiple surgeries. Well, a couple from the parish had just gotten back from Greece and had some oil from the lamp that burns over St. Nektarios' grave. The priest of the parish rubbed the oil on his foot and asked for St. Nektarios' intercession and he was walking within three days. The doctors were shocked and we all knew it was a true miracle of the saint. I too was skeptical until I saw it myself.

One book that helped me get over some of my "evangelical baggage" was Elder Cleopa of Romania's The Truth of Our Faith. The book is written in an easy to read Q&A format and addresses many of the questions non-Orthodox have about our faith. That book helped put so many issues to rest for me. Maybe it could help you too. Here's a link to it...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9608677807/qid=1116467629/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-4776826-6141708

[Photini]

also St Mary of Egypt, which is the first Saint I learned about. Her story melted my heart.

[Photios]

St. Athanasius, St. Gregory the Theologian, St Vincent of Lerins, and St Patrick. But to be honest - this is one area I am always walking with unsure footing. I just don't understand this part of my new faith. I don't understand when people talk of miracles done by specific saints. I don't condemn it, just don't get it. I have a lot of evangelical baggage. Any advice would be helpful.

I don't come from an evangelical background, but here are some things that I have heard and read that made the idea of saints much more clear to me.

Saints who perform miracles are more advanced than most in Theosis. They have become close enough to God that the wonders they work are nothing out of the ordinary. To them it is completely natural to heal or be clairvoyant or whatever miraculous occurence follows them. It is not their own power but God working through them and them being close enough to Him to wholly accept it.

The lives of the Saints is the living expression of the theology of the Church. It is in fact just as, if not more, important than the theology. This is what we strive for, not to know the $37 words in ancient tomes, but to live it and work it out in our own lives; to learn to follow in the footsteps of Theosis.
---------------------------------------------

That is what I have been told. The second one is why, while I may be somewhat knowledgable when it comes to philosophy, I don't know a lot of the theological language of the Church. I am much betterat, and more interested in, the lives of Saints.

[Kolya]

Christ is Risen!!!

St. Athanasius, St. Gregory the Theologian, St Vincent of Lerins, and St Patrick. But to be honest - this is one area I am always walking with unsure footing. I just don't understand this part of my new faith. I don't understand when people talk of miracles done by specific saints. I don't condemn it, just don't get it. I have a lot of evangelical baggage. Any advice would be helpful.

When I was converting, this little manuscript helped me appreciate the Saints more. The stories are translated very roughly from Russian, but they are very moving. The link is Here (http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/chudesa_e.htm)
This is one story from it:-

‘’Raise and Lift It!

My great-grandmother lived in the manor in the Yaroslavl province. She stayed in bed without a motion for more than ten years — her legs were paralyzed. In the corner there was a Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, which she frequently appealed to in a prayer.

Once she heard some noise as if something fell, and heard the voice: ‘Rise and lift it.’ She looked around — nobody was there. ‘A mistake’, — she thought.

And again she heard the words: ‘Rise and lift it.’ The fear and surprise overwhelmed her: ‘How can I stand, when I lie motionlessly for so many years?’

Then she heard the voice for the third time, firm, as if an order: ‘I tell you, raise and lift it.’

At that time she felt strength inside, put her legs on the floor and went to that corner from which she had heard the voice. So what did she see? The icon (one board without the mounting, but very well written — the image was like alive) laid on the floor, split in two parts.

She bent in fear, lifted the icon and began to connect the two parts, and they as if grew together. But because she connected the parts inexactly, the Mother of God had one part of the face higher than the other.

Since then the grandmother recovered. The icon was transferred to the church, and it started to make miracles.



Kolya