Patron saints by name
Find your patron saint by name
Every Orthodox Christian bears the name of a saint who keeps watch over them, and keeps that saint’s feast as a name day. Type a first name to find the saint, the name day on both calendars, and the icon to give.
Your name’s saint. St John the Baptist, name day 24 June (7 July on the Old Calendar). St John the Warrior & Guardian Angel, $69.
Your name’s saint
St John the Baptist
Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Πρόδρομος · Иоанн Предтеча
Name day 24 June (7 July on the Old Calendar)
Greek custom keeps the name day on 7 January (20 January on the Old Calendar).
The last of the prophets, who preached repentance in the wilderness, baptized Christ in the Jordan and was beheaded by Herod.
The faithful ask St John for
- repentance and a change of life
- relief from headaches (the Russian custom
- for he was beheaded)
- the courage to speak the truth
In our shop: the icon of St John the Warrior, who also bore the name John.
Also in our shop for John
Other saints named John
- St John the Warrior: 30 July (12 August on the Old Calendar)
- St John the Silent: 3 December (16 December on the Old Calendar)
- St John the Theologian: 26 September (9 October on the Old Calendar)
In the Russian custom a person keeps the day of the saint of their name whose feast comes first after their birthday; in the Greek custom each name has one day.
Today, 16 October, the Church remembers St Longinus the Centurion; on the Old Calendar, St Dionysius the Areopagite.
The gift for a name day
Each folding icon pairs the patron saint with the Guardian Angel, printed under glass in velvet covers. The Name-Day Gift Set adds a crucifix and a prayer rope, in a gift box with a card giving the saint’s life and feast day.
Add Consecration, $49, if you wish: our priest consecrated each folding icon before it left the workshop, one by one, with holy water and the prayers of the Church.
Among the saints we carry
St Nicholas, St Matthew, St Mark, St Patrick, St Edward, St Olaf and the Holy Foremother Eve, each beside the Guardian Angel, and the St John the Warrior and Guardian Angel diptych for those who serve.
Or give the saint’s folding icon on its own, $69: every saint we carry.
How name days are kept
Two calendars
The Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian Churches and the Orthodox Church in America keep the feasts on the New Calendar. The Russian, Serbian and Georgian Churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos keep the Old Calendar, thirteen days later. We give both dates.
One day, or the nearest saint
Greek custom keeps one name day for each name. In the Russian custom a person keeps the day of the saint of their name whose feast comes first after their birthday, so a name can have several days.
A name with no saint
A name that no saint bore keeps its name day, by Greek custom, on All Saints’ Sunday. By an old custom a patron can also be chosen among the saints of the birthday or the baptism day, and every Orthodox Christian has a Guardian Angel from baptism. Many take a saint’s name at baptism or chrismation: if they have one, type that name.
Name days and saints from the Greek name-day calendar (eortologio.net), the Russian Church’s calendar of saints (azbyka.ru) and the Orthodox Church in America’s Lives of the Saints.
