St John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day Antiochian commemoration

  St John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria

  John the Almsgiver (c. 550–620), also called John the Merciful, was Greek Patriarch of Alexandria in the last decade of his life and the most celebrated almsgiver among the Church's hierarchs. A widowed Cypriot nobleman raised to the throne of Saint Mark around 610, he made the relief of the poor the whole programme of his patriarchate: he called the destitute of the city "my lords and masters," enrolled and fed thousands of them, poured the wealth of the great see into hospitals, hostels and refugee-relief, and reformed the commercial life of Alexandria in their favour. His Life, written by Leontios of Neapolis, preserves a vivid gallery of his charity. He is commemorated on November 12.

• Our Father among the Saints Martin, Bishop of Tours (397)

• Our Holy Father Nilus the Ascetic of Sinai (430)

  Nilus the Faster (died c. 430), also called Nilus the Ascetic and, in the later tradition, Nilus of Sinai, is one of the most prolific ascetic writers of the early Church: a vast body of letters and monastic treatises circulates under his name. The tradition remembers him as a high official of Constantinople who forsook the world with his son to become a monk, and as a spiritual heir of John Chrysostom whose memory he defended. Modern scholarship distinguishes the historical monk-author, Nilus of Ancyra, from the legendary Sinaite of the later Life. He is commemorated on November 12.

• St Nilus the Myrrh-Gusher of Mt Athos (1651)

  Nilus the Myrrh-gusher (c. 1601–1651) was a Greek hieromonk of Mount Athos who ended his life as a solitary in a nearly inaccessible cave on the mountain's south-eastern cliffs. He is called "Myrrh-gusher" because after his death a fragrant myrrh flowed in such abundance from his grave that it ran down the rock to the sea, drawing pilgrims who came by boat to gather it. In the following century he was believed to have appeared repeatedly to an Athonite monk, dictating a body of prophecies about the last times that circulated widely. He is commemorated on November 12.

• Ahijah the Shilonite

  Ahijah the Shilonite (in Greek Achias) was a prophet of the tenth century before Christ, from the ancient sanctuary town of Shiloh, active in the reigns of Solomon and Jeroboam. He is remembered for two great oracles of the First Book of Kings: the tearing of a new garment into twelve pieces, by which he foretold the division of Solomon's kingdom and Jeroboam's rule over ten tribes; and, in his blind old age, the prophecy of the death of Jeroboam's son and the doom of his idolatrous house. The Orthodox Church numbers him among the holy prophets of the Old Covenant and commemorates him on November 12.

• Arsacius

  Arsacius (Arsakios) is a holy martyr commemorated on November 12, of whom the tradition preserves almost nothing beyond his name and the manner of his death: the synaxarion records simply that he was perfected by the sword. Neither his country, his date, nor the persecution under which he suffered has been handed down.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Machar, bishop of Aberdeen (6th C)
• St. Sinnell of Cleenish (6th C)
• St. Cadwaladr, King of the Welsh (664)
• St. Cummian Fada, founder of the monastery of Kilcummin (662)
• St. Liafwine of Deventer, missionary (c.773)
• Monk-martyr Ymar of Reculver (c.830)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings