Christian Saints Podcast

Saint Patrick is a 5th century missionary who was primarily responsible for bringing the Christian faith to Ireland. He was born in Britain, but at a young age was kidnapped by pirates and forced into slavery in Ireland. Through divine providence he escaped and returned to Britain many years later, but received a vision telling him to go back to Ireland to bring the Gospel there. After some years...

Saints Perpetua and Felicity were Christian martyrs in Carthage, in Roman Africa, who died in the year 203. Saint Perpetua was only 22,  a young mother from a patrician family. Saint Felicity was her slave, who was pregnant at the time of their arrest, and ended up giving birth in prison. They refused offers to offer sacrifices to pagan gods  in exchange for their freedom, were mauled by beasts in...

Saint John Cassian was a monk and theologian who lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He was probably born somewhere in Romania, and traveled to Egypt to study with the desert monastic community that was active there (to learn more about them, listen to our fourth episode, " Desert Fathers and Mothers "). He also was a disciple of Saint John Chrysostom for a time. Eventually he...

Saint Theodora was empress of the Byzantine Empire  in the 9th century, as wife of the Emperor Theophilos. (Note that there is another "Saint Theodora the Empress"- the Emperor Justinian's wife, who lived in the 6th century). She is acclaimed for defeating the iconoclast heresy, which was very influential in her time. In fact, her husband, the Emperor Theophilos was an iconoclast. ...

Saint Timothy was a close companion of the Apostle Paul and the first Bishop of Ephesus. The Eastern Orthodox church considers him an apostle.  He is mentioned several times in the New Testament, and in particular two books of the New Testament are letters that Paul wrote to Timothy. He worked together with Saint Paul in his missionary journeys, and later became Bishop of Ephesus, where he was mar...

The virgin martyr Saint Agnes of Rome lived from around  291 to 304 AD, during a time of great Christian persecution in the Roman empire. At the age of only 12 or 13, after spurning the advances of a powerful city official's son, she was exposed as a Christian, and subjected to many tortures and humiliations before suffering a martyr's death. In this episode we explore the impact that he...

Saint Gregory of Nyssa  was a 4th century bishop and theologian, as well as the younger brother of St Basil the Great. As one of the "Cappadocian Fathers", Saint Gregory was among the most important theologians in Christian history, and his work continues to be influential today especially for Eastern Orthodox Christians.  He was an eloquent defender of Christian truth against heresy, an...

Saint John, the "disciple whom Jesus loved" was one of the Twelve Apostles, and wrote five books in the Bible, among them the Gospel of John. Significantly, he was the only one of the Twelve Apostles present with Jesus during the crucifixion.  Saint John was the longest-living of the twelve apostles, and had a strong influence on the generation of church leaders who succeeded them.  The...

Saint Nicholas of Myra (270 AD-343 AD) , also known as Saint Nicholas the wonderworker, is one of the most beloved Saints in the Christian tradition. Even among non-Christians, he is well-known as the inspiration for Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas is famed for his generosity. When his parents died young he gave away his sizable inheritance to the poor. He also gave gold in secret to three young girls...

Saint Photini (Also known as Photine, Photina, or Svetlana) is the Samaritan woman Jesus encounters in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John. The early Christians gave her the title isapóstolos, which means " equal to the apostles".  To understand the context of her meeting with Jesus, we review the history and tense relationship of the Jewish and Samaritan communities of Jesus'...

Saint Vitalis is the patron saint of prostitutes and day labourers. He was a 7th century monk in Gaza, and at age 60 traveled to Alexandria to minister to the prostitutes there. He would work as a day labourer, and use his earnings to pay prostitutes to stay home while he read Psalms to them.  His work was misunderstood, and he was slandered as an immoral person. Thus Saint Vitalis' story emp...

Saint Peter is one of Jesus' twelve apostles, and one of the most prominent characters in the gospels. He was also the first Pope of Rome and the first Patriarch of Antioch.  Today we contemplate Saint Peter's journey, from a brash fisherman to one of the most important leaders of the early church. The Christian Saints Podcast is a joint production of Generative sounds & Paradosis Pa...

The desert fathers and mothers were a monastic community in the Egyptian desert starting from the 3rd century AD. In this episode, we discuss Christian monasticism, and what we can learn from the desert fathers and mothers and from monks and nuns today. We read from  the Apophthegmata Patrum , a collection of their sayings and stories. We use an English translation given by Henri Nouwen, in his co...

Saint Stephen is known as the protomartyr , the first Christian to die for his faith. In the book of Acts, he is also noted as a deacon, a word that signifies a leadership role in church today, but in Greek just means "servant". We contemplate Stephen's servanthood and his witness, primarily in the book of Acts chapters 6-8. We also discuss martyrdom in the early Christian church, a...

For our first episode (and in commemoration of All Saints' Day) we consider the concept of Christian sainthood in general, and the role of the saints in traditional Christian faith and devotion. We reflect on the account of the "Great Multitude in White Robes" in the Revelation of John ( Revelation 7:9-17 ),  and the commemorative hymns and prayers for All Saints Day in the Anglican...

For our second episode, we venerate Mary, the greatest of all the saints. We consider some of the titles given to her from across the Christian tradition: Theotokos, Mother of God, Joy of All who Sorrow, Cause of our Salvation, Mother of the Church. We study how those titles reflect Mary's role in our Christian faith, and how she directs us toward Christ. The readings covered in this episode...