Friday, August 24, 2007

Orthodox Western Saints

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has proclaimed a new feast to be kept on the third Sunday after Pentecost (old calendar). The feast day will honor the Orthodox (which is to say pre 1054) saints of Great Britain and Ireland. It was also decreed that their names were to be included in the menology (saints calendar) following a study of their history and exploits. Aside from the significance of this nod to the Orthodox West it will also have the practical effect of adding some names available for baptism that are a little less Slavic/Byzantine for those not from a culturally Eastern background. Thus instead of naming your kid Boris you can give him a more normal name that won't get him beaten up at school... like Aristobulus, Byrinus or Cadfarch. :-)

From Interfax via Directions to Orthodoxy

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My husband is Irish on his mother's side and we named our son Declan.

St. Declan of Ardmore, pray to God for us!