These Saints were from Italy and contested for the Faith about the year 126, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Faith was twelve years old, Hope, ten, and Love, nine; each was tormented and then beheaded, from the eldest to the youngest. Their mother Sophia mourned at their grave for three days, where she also fell asleep in peace; because of her courageous endurance in the face of her daughters' sufferings, she is also counted a martyr. The name Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek; as for her daughters' names, Faith, Hope, and Love (Charity), they are Pistis, Elpis, and Agape in Greek, and Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov in Russian.

He was born in 602 in Tarsus of Asia Minor. As a   child, he experienced the devastating wars   between the Byzantine and Persian Empires (613-  14) that resulted in the capture of the major   Christian cities of Antioch, Damascus, and   Jerusalem. Tarsus was also captured by the   Persians, when Theodore was 11 or 12. He   likely studied at Antioch’s distinctive School of   Exegesis (Greek   for ‘explaining’) of which he was a proponent. He also seemed to be familiar with the Persian and Syrian languages and cultures. The subsequent Arab conquest of Tarsus, in 637, apparently caused him to move west to Constantinople. There, he studied astronomy, ecclesiastical computes, medicine, Roman civil law, Greek rhetoric and philosophy.  Some time before 660, he joined a community of Greek monks in Rome, likely at the Monastery of St. Anastasios, where he learned both sacred and secular Latin literature.

      In 667, the see of Canterbury in England became vacant, so the Christian kings of Kent and Northumbria sent a man named Wighard to Rome to be consecrated archbishop. However, Wighard died unexpectedly while in Rome. Pope Vitalian wanted to send a cleric named Hadrian as Wighard’s replacement, however Hadrian humbly refused and recommended Theodore. Theodore was consecrated the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, serving in that capacity for the next 22 years. On March 26, 668, at the age of 67, he left Rome for England, accompanied by the humble Hadrian.

   They arrived in Canterbury on May 27, 669, and established a school there, training and unifying Christians from both the Celtic and Roman traditions. This led to a golden age of Anglo-Saxon scholarship. Hadrian headed the school, teaching the Holy Scriptures, poetry, astronomy and the calculations of the ecclesiastic calendar. Archbishop Theodore taught sacred music, knowledge of Eastern saints, and may be responsible for the introduction of the Litany of the Saints of the Eastern church, which was an innovation into the West. Some of his thoughts are found in the Biblical Commentaries (notes compiled by his students.) A text, recently attributed to him, was rediscovered in the 1990s.

    Although already 68 years old when he arrived in England, Archbishop Theodore energetically toured the country and consecrated bishops to vacant sees. When he proposed dividing the large diocese of Northumbria into smaller ones, he came into conflict with Bishop Wilfrid, whom he himself had previously appointed.  Archbishop Theodore deposed Wilfrid for his disobedience, but eventually they were reconciled, and Bishop Wilfrid later attained sainthood, too.

   In 672, Archbishop Theodore called the Synod of Hertford to institute reforms concerning the proper celebration of Easter, episcopal authority, itinerant monks, marriage prohibitions between close relatives, and other issues.

   In 679, the brother of King Ecgfrid of Northumbria (northern England) was killed in a battle against the Mercians (of central England.) Archbishop Theodore intervened in the dispute, prevented the escalation of war, and established a peace between the two kingdoms.   He reposed in 690 at the age of 88, and was buried at St. Peter’s Church, which is now called St. Augustine’s Abbey.   

The holy Martyr Eustathius before his baptism was an illustrious Roman general named Placidas in the days of the Emperor Trajan. While hunting in the country one day, he was converted to the Faith of Christ through the apparition of an uncommonly majestic stag, between whose antlers he saw the Cross of Christ, and through which the Lord spoke to him with a human voice. Upon returning home, he learned that his wife Tatiana had also had a vision in which she was instructed to become a Christian. They sought out the Bishop of the Christians and were baptized, Placidas receiving the name Eustathius, and Tatiana the name Theopiste; their two sons were baptized Agapius and Theopistus. The family was then subjected to such trials as Job endured. Their servants died, all their goods were stolen, and on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem they were scattered abroad, each not even knowing if the others were still alive. By the providence of God, they were united again after many years, and returned to Rome in glory. Nevertheless, when they refused to sacrifice to the idols-a public sacrifice from which no Roman general could be absent-the Emperor Hadrian, who had succeeded Trajan, had them put into a large bronze device in the shape of a bull, which was heated with fire until they died. When their holy bodies were removed, they were found to be without harm. They suffered martyrdom about the year 126.

The Prophet Jonah, the son of Amathi, of the town of Geth-hopher (IV Kings 14:25), was of the tribe of Zabulon; he prophesied during the years 838-810 before Christ. God commanded him to go to Nineveh, the great city of the Assyrians, and to proclaim that its destruction was nigh at hand because of the sins of its people. But he, as a Prophet who knew the great compassion of God, feared that at his preaching the Ninevites would repent; that God, accepting their repentance in His love for man, would not fulfill Jonah' threats; and that he would be branded a false prophet. So he disobeyed the divine command, and boarded a ship and departed elsewhere. Yet, the sudden and fearful sea-storm and the revelation of Jonah' disbedience caused the sailors to cast him into the sea. A great sea-monster appeared straightway by divine providence, and swallowed him up. For three days and nights he was found in its belly and he prayed, saying the words, "I cried aloud in my affliction unto the Lord my God..." (Jonah 2:3, the Sixth ode of the Holy Psalter). The sea-monster then vomited him up on dry land and he again heard God's command. Wherefore, he went and preached, saying, "In three days, Nineveh shall be destroyed." The people became terrified and all repented. The great, the small, babes at the breast, and even the irrational beasts themselves fasted, and thus, having found mercy from God, they were spared His wrath. Jonah' book of prophecy is divided into four chapters, and is placed fifth in order among the twelve minor Prophets. His three-day sojourn in the sea-monster's belly is an image of our Saviour's three-day burial and His life-bringing Resurrection (Matt. 12:39-40). His name means "dove."

This saint was known for the many miracles he worked and for his apostolic zeal in shepherding the flock of Sinope. He contested for the Faith during the reign of the Emperor Trajan, in the year 102, when he was burned to death in a bath-house. A homily in his honour was composed by Saint John Chrysostom. The translation of his holy relics is celebrated on July 23.

This came to pass fifteen months before the birth of Christ, after the vision of the Angel that Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, saw in the Temple while he executed the priest's office in the order of his course during the feast of the Tabernacles, as tradition bears witness. In this vision, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and said to him, "Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John" (Luke 1:13). Knowing that Elizabeth was barren, and that both he and she were elderly, Zacharias did not believe what the Angel told him, although he had before him the example of Abraham and Sarah, of Hannah, mother of the Prophet Samuel, and of other barren women in Israel who gave birth by the power of God. Hence, he was condemned by the Archangel to remain speechless until the fulfilment of these words in their season, which also came to pass (Luke 1:7-24).