April 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

April 3 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - April 5

An Eastern Orthodox cross

All fixed commemorations below are observed on April 17 by Eastern Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar.^{[note 1]}

For April 4th, Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar commemorate the Saints listed on March 22.

Saints

• Martyrs Agathopodes, a deacon, and Theodulus, a lector, at Thessalonica, under Maximian (c. 286–305)^{[1][2][3][note 2]} (see also: April 5 - Slavic)
• Virgin-martyr Pherbutha (Phermoutha, Ferfouthe) of Persia, with her sister Mekadoshta and the latter’s maidservant (343)^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}
• Venerable George of Mount Maleon (Malevon) in Laconia, monk, in the Peloponnese (5th-6th centuries)^[5][11][12]
• Venerable Publius the Egyptian.^[2][13] (see also: April 5 - Slavic)
• Venerable Zosimas of Palestine, Hieromonk (c. 560)^{[5][14][15][note 3]}
• Venerable Saints Theonas, Symeon, and Fervinus (Phorbinus).^[2][16] (see also: April 5 - Slavic)
• Venerable Platon the Studite (Plato of Sakkoudion), Abbot of the Studion and Confessor (812)^{[2][17][18][note 4]} (see also: April 5 - Slavic)
• Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer, of Sicily (883)^[5][19] (see also: April 3)

Pre-Schism Western saints

• Saint Guier, a priest and hermit in Cornwall, where a church recalls his name.^[20]
• Saint Gwerir, a hermit near Liskeard in Cornwall, at whose grave King Alfred was healed of a serious illness.^{[20][21][note 5]}
• Saint Tigernach of Clones (Tigernake, Tierney, Tierry), Abbot of Clones, succeeded St Macartin as bishop at Clogher in Ireland (549)^{[20][22][23][note 6]}
• Saint Isidore of Seville, Bishop of Seville (636)^{[5][20][25][26][27][note 7]}
• Saint Hildebert of Ghent, Abbot of Saint Peter's Abbey, Ghent, Belgium, martyred by fanatics for defending the veneration of icons (752)^[20]

Post-Schism Orthodox saints

• Venerable Joseph the Much-ailing, of the Kiev Caves (14th century)^[5][28][29]
• Venerable James, monk of Starotorzhok (Old Torzhok) in Galich, Kostroma (15th-16th centuries)^[5][30]
• Venerable Theonas, Metropolitan of Thessaloniki (1541)^{[2][5][31][32]}
• Venerable Zosimas, founder and abbot of the Annunciation Monastery at Lake Vorbozoma (Vorbosomsk) (1550)^[5][33][34]
• New Hieromartyr Nicetas the Albanian, of Mount Athos and Serres (1808)^{[2][5][35][36]}
• Venerable Elias of Makeyevka, Schema-monk, of Makeyevka, Ukraine (1949)^{[5][note 8]}

New martyrs and confessors

• New Hieromartyr Benjamin (Kononov), Archimandrite, of Solovki Monastery (1928)^{[5][37][38][note 9]}
• New Hieromartyr Nicephorus (Kuchin), Hieromonk, of Solovki Monastery (1928)^[5][37][38]
• New Hieromartyr Nicholas (Karaulov), Bishop of Velsk (1932)^[5][37]
• New Nun-martyr Maria (Lelyanova) of Gatchina (1932)^{[5][37][note 10][note 11]} (see also: January 26)
• New Hieromartyr John Vechorko, Priest (1933)^[30][37]
• Martyr John Kolesnikov (1943)^[30][37]

Other commemorations

• Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "The Life-giving Spring" (450)^[5][38] (see also: Bright Friday)
• The Akathist Hymn (Chairetismoi) to the Virgin Mary (626)^[40]
• Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Gerontissa" ("Eldress"), at Pantokratoros monastery, Mount Athos.^[38][41][42]
• The Icon of the Mother of God "Deliverer" ("Deliveress") (1841, 1889)^{[38][43][note 12]} (see also: October 17)
• Repose of Elder Savvas of Little St. Anne's Skete, Mt. Athos (1908)^[5]
• Repose of Maria Berushko and 8 children, by fire, in Joaquim Távora, Brazil^[44]
• Repose of Archimandrite John (Maitland Moir) of Edinburgh, Scotland (April 17, 2013)^{[5][note 13]}

Icon gallery

• 
  Venerable Zosimas of Palestine, with St. Mary of Egypt (Greece, 17th century).
• 
  Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer, of Sicily.
• 
  Abbey of St. Peter & Paul, Clones (Clones Abbey).
• 
  St. Isidore of Seville, Bishop of Seville.
• 
  New Hieromartyr Benjamin (Kononov), Archimandrite, of Solovki Monastery.
• 
  New Nun-martyr Maria (Lelyanova) of Gatchina.
• 
  New Nun-martyr Maria (Lelyanova) of Gatchina.
• 
  Russian icon of the Theotokos, Life-giving Spring, 17th century.
• 
  Detail of the icon of the Praises of the Theotokos, before which the Akathist may be chanted.
• 
  Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Gerontissa" ("Eldress").

Notes

1. The notation Old Style or (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian Calendar (which is used by churches on the "Old Calendar").
   The notation New Style or (NS), indicates a date in the Revised Julian calendar (which is used by churches on the "New Calendar").
2. "At Thessalonica, in the time of the emperor Maximian and the governor Faustinus, the holy martyrs Agathopodes, a deacon, and Theodulus, a lector, who, for the confession of the Christian faith, were thrown into the sea with stones tied to their necks."^[4]
3. "In Palestine, the anchoret St. Zozimus, who buried the remains of St. Mary of Egypt."^[4]
4. "At Constantinople, St. Plato, a monk, who for many years combated with invincible courage the heretics that were breaking sacred images."^[4]
5. St Gwerir's cell was later occupied by Neot.
6. "St. Tigernake - Confessor, Bishop of Clogher aud Clones. This Saint was a native of Ireland, who came to Great Britain for his religious education, and is said to have been a disciple of Monennius. On his return to his country he was made Bishop of Clogher, to which he united the district of Clones."^[24]
7. Born in Cartagena in Spain, he was the brother of Sts Leander, Fulgentius and Florentina. He succeeded St Leander as Bishop of Seville in 600. He presided over several Councils, reorganised the Spanish Church, encouraged monastic life, completed the Mozarabic rite, was an encyclopedic writer and was also responsible for the Council of Toledo in 633.
8. The canonization of the Great-Schema Monk Elias (born Ilya Yakovlevich Ganja / Ilya Hanzha) took place in Makeevka, Ukraine on September 22, 2012.
9. See: (in Russian) Вениамин (Кононов). Википедии. (Russian Wikipedia).
10. "Maria Gatchinskaya (born Lidia Alexandrovna Lelyanova) (1874, St. Petersburg -1932, Leningrad), schema nun. A daughter of a wealthy St. Petersburg merchant, she studied at a gymnasium. From 1909 she lived in Gatchina, at 41 Baggovutskaya Street (the house has not survived). She had rheumatism from an early age, and was bed-ridden from 1912. However, she found a gift for consoling mourners. In the 1920s, she took the veil under the name of Maria and received numerous visitors who sought spiritual comfort from her. Maria Gatchinskaya, whose confessor was archpriest Ioann Smolin, soon had a circle of young female admirers gathered around her. In February 1932, Maria Gatchinskaya was arrested and put into a prison hospital. According to one of the versions concerning her death she died shortly after imprisonment following doctors' experiments. She was buried at Smolenskoe Orthodox Cemetery near the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed; the faithful consider her a martyr."^[39]
11. See: (in Russian) Мария Гатчинская. Википедии. (Russian Wikipedia).
12. Note, there is another icon of the Theotokos "the Deliverer" ("Eleftherotria"), which is commemorated on October 28 in Greece, at the Shrine of Panagia Eleftherotria ("Our Lady of Deliverance"), Athens.
13. "In 1981 he went to the Holy Mountain where he was received into the Orthodox Church at the Monastery of Simonos Petra. Then he came to Britain where he was ordained Deacon (12/07/81) and Priest (13/07/81) within the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. His first parish was Coventry. He came to Edinburgh in 1984 where there was a small Orthodox community consisting of Slavs and Greeks which was served by Archpriest John Sotnikov (and occasionally by the Greek priest from Glasgow) and was under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Fr John Maitland Moir united the Orthodox of the city in one community that of St Andrew the First-Called under the Archdiocese of Thyateira and the Ecumenical Patriarchate."^[45]