Justin: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Justin was born around the year 114 at Sychem in Samaria to pagan Greek parents. A seeker of truth from his youth, he went from one school of Greek philosophy to another, the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and the Platonists, and found in none of them the true God. Then an old man he met directed him to the Holy Scriptures and to prayer. Justin found in Christ the wisdom he had been looking for, and he was baptized at about thirty years of age. He went on teaching, now as a Christian philosopher: he preached through the Roman Empire, opened a school of Christian philosophy, and answered pagans and heretics alike. In 155 he wrote an Apology to the emperor Antoninus Pius that helped to end a persecution; he debated the Jewish teacher Trypho at Ephesus, and in 161 he addressed a second Apology to the Roman Senate. Back in Rome, a rival he had often bested in debate, Crescentius, brought false charges against him. Before the prefect Rusticus, Justin and his companions refused to sacrifice to the idols and were beheaded. Asked whether he expected a heavenly reward, he answered that he knew it and was fully assured of it. His relics rest in Rome. The Church remembers him on 1 June (14 June on the Old Calendar), and those who seek help in their studies call on him.

What the faithful pray for

• help in study and learning
• students, teachers and all who seek the truth
• courage to give an answer for the faith
• a mind turned from empty wisdom to Christ