December 12
Feasts
Hieromartyr Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem (250-251); Martyr Aitherius (Aetherius), under Maximian, tortured and beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols (ca.286-305); Saint Spyridon the Wonder-worker of Trymithous (348); Venerable Amonathus, monk; Venerable Anthus, monk; Saint Euphemiane; Martyr John, Abbot of the Zedazeni Monastery, Georgia (9th c.) (see also May 7); Martyr Synesius (Synetus) of Rome, a Reader, tortured and beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to idols (270-275); Martyrs Maxentius, Constantius, Crescentius, Justinus and their Companions, martyrs in Trier in Germany in the reign of Diocletian, under the governor Rictiovarus (ca.287); Saint Abra of Poitiers, daughter of St Hilary of Poitiers in France (ca.360); Saint Corentinus of Quimper, first Bishop of Quimper in Brittany, who had lived as a hermit at Plomodiern (490); Saint Finian of Clonard and Skellig Michael, teacher of Ireland and one of the fathers of Irish monasticism (549); Saint Columba of Terryglass (Columba of Tyrdaglas), born in Leinster in Ireland, he was a disciple of St Finian and Abbot of Tyrdaglas in Munster (552); Saint Gregory of Terracina, a disciple of St Benedict, and with his brother St Speciosus, a monk at Terracina in Italy (ca.570); Saint Cormac (Cormac mac Eogain), an Abbot in Ireland and friend of St Columba (6th c.); Saint Colman of Glendalough in Ireland, Abbot (659); Saint Agatha, nun at Wimborne in Dorset in England and a disciple of St Lioba, she went to Germany to help St Boniface in his missionary work (ca.790); Saint John, Metropolitan of Zichon, founder of the Monastery of the Forerunner on Mt. Menikion (north-east of Serres) (1333); Venerable Therapontus, Abbot of Monza (1597); Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of Alaska (1836) (see also December 13 - repose; and August 9 - feast day); Other Commemorations: Synaxis of the First Martyrs of the American land: Hieromartyr Juvenal the Protomartyr of America (1796), Peter the Aleut (ca.1815), and New Martyrs of Russia Anatole (Kamensky) of Irkutsk, Seraphim (Samoilovich) of Uglich, and priests John (Kochurov) of Chicago (1917) and Alexander (Khotovitsky) of New York (1937) (see also September 24 - Synaxis of All Saints of Alaska); Repose of Flegont (Ostrovsky) (Desert-dweller Flegont of Maksha River, Penza), Stylite of Kimlyai (Mordovia) (1870).