Saints and Righteous Ones
True spiritual life begins when we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, right here on this earth. And the Lives of the Saints bear witness to us that the Life of Christ on earth did not end with His Ascension into Heaven, nor with the martyrdom of His Apostles. His Life continues to this day in His Church, and is seen most brilliantly in His Saints. And we, too, in our own spiritual lives, are to enter into that continuing, never-ending Life. – Hieromonk Damascene
Below are some short lives of the saints and righteous that are specially loved and venerated in our church. As St John of Kronstadt reminds us ‘All the saints are our older brothers in the one House of the Heavenly Father.
Having departed from earth to heaven, they are always with us in God…. They serve together with us, they sing, they speak, they instruct, they help us in various temptations and sorrows. Call upon them as living with you under a single roof; glorify them, thank them, converse with them as with living people; and you will believe in the Church’.
Universal Saints
Saints known and venerated by Orthodox Christians around the world.
Local Saints
Saints not known universally but who laboured for Christ when the West was in full communion with the Orthodox Church.
Righteous Ones
Orthodox who lived lives of great holiness who have not yet been formally canonised as saints
