Charalampia: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Charalambos was a priest of the Christian community of Magnesia in Thessaly; Greek sources and icons remember him as a priest, while Russian sources call him a bishop. When his preaching came to the notice of the governor Lucian, he was arrested and ordered to sacrifice to the idols. He refused, and although he was more than a hundred years old, he was cruelly tortured. Seeing his endurance, two soldiers and three women confessed Christ and were martyred, and many who witnessed the miracles worked through his prayers came to believe. Sent to the emperor Septimius Severus at Antioch, he suffered further torments, yet raised a dead youth and freed a man tormented by demons; the emperor’s own daughter Galina came to faith in Christ. At last he was condemned to be beheaded, but he gave up his soul to God before the sword fell, about the year 202, and Galina buried him with honour. Before his death he prayed that the place where his relics rest would be spared famine, plague and crop-destroying winds, and would know peace and plenty of grain, wine and oil. The faithful, above all in Greece, have long called on him against plague and contagious disease. In 1908, when an epidemic struck Mount Athos, his skull was brought from the Monastery of St Stephen at Meteora for an all-night vigil, and the monks of the Holy Mountain still keep a yearly vigil in his honour. His feast is 10 February (23 February on the Old Calendar).

What the faithful pray for

• protection from plague and contagious disease
• healing of the sick
• deliverance from famine and calamity
• good harvests of grain, wine and oil
• protection from misfortune and enemies
• the forgiveness of sins