Index of days of celebration of Orthodox and Catholic names. The complicated history of Catholic names

Since the emergence of the Christian religion of the century, there has been a single Church of Christ. But from the 9th century its collapse began, which ended in the 11th century with the formation of the Eastern Catholic (Byzantine) and Roman Catholic Church. Since that time, while maintaining the main features of general Christian teaching, Catholicism has clearly manifested features and differences in dogmas, rituals, discipline and rules. These differences also affected traditions in Orthodox and Catholic naming.

Catholic names from the period of the collapse of the United Church.

As in Orthodoxy, in catholic church At baptism, a person’s name is given from the Catholic calendar. Those names that were included in the Catholic calendar before the schism of the church coincide with the Orthodox. Typically these are names mentioned in the Bible. But the list of such names was meager - in the first centuries of the formation of Christianity, not many ascetics of the faith managed to “earn” holiness. The Catholic Church “inherited” the vast possessions of the former Roman Empire, where pagan peoples lived. In Western Europe, the main languages - English, German, French, Spanish - were in the process of formation. Italian just developed. The first significant additions to the list of Catholic names were brought by the invasion of Germanic tribes, which gradually joined the ranks of Christians. Some German names were canonized, and among the Catholic names there appeared Adolf (noble wolf), Bernard (strong as a bear), Siegfried (conqueror of the world).

Changes in Catholic naming.

During times crusades Catholic rituals were not very observed, people did not attend churches much. And then Pope Gregory VII decided to revive the cult of veneration of saints. This was facilitated by the crusaders returning to Europe, who worshiped Saints George, Anatoly and Nicholas. In the Middle Ages, the influence of Catholicism increased, people began to believe that various saints help them in one way or another. life situation. The naming of Catholic names became increasingly widespread.

In the XVI – XVII centuries During the Reformation, there were attempts to change the Catholic naming code. The Puritans rejected names that were not mentioned in Holy Scripture(Alexander, Elena, Georgy). Protestants came up with new ones - Peace, Humility, Hating Sin. Still the main list Catholic male and female names remained unchanged.

Catholic naming traditions.

Modern traditions of the Roman Catholic Church prescribe choosing baptismal names only from the Catholic calendar. In some countries, it is still boys and girls called several Catholic names. Thus, the child acquires more than one heavenly patron who helps him throughout his life. Catholics are jealous of their names and do not accept their abbreviation or distortion.

Features: how to choose for girls, what is taken into account?

Saint's Day is the anniversary of the death of a canonized person., who did a lot for peace and religion in his time. This is the day he moved into eternal life. This day is considered the saint’s name day. Catholic Christians are very zealous about names, not allowing their distortions and abbreviations, therefore the names have reached our times in their original, unchanged state.

For everyday use, such nicknames are of course abbreviated, for example, this is how Joanna turned into Zhanna. Among Catholics, it is considered wrong to first choose a name for a girl, and only then compare it with the calendar and look for saints with a similar name.

Important! For a child, it is more important to choose a patron saint and intercessor to whom the heart lies, because... It is not necessary to give a name exactly every day; a gap of 8 days is considered acceptable.

By month according to the holy calendar

The calendar of Christian saints is very helpful when choosing a name for a newborn. Below is a selection by month and with a short description of the life and accomplishments of each of these people.

January

February

February 1: Catarina de Ricci, an enlightened woman, advised three priests who later became Popes.
February 2: Joanna de Lestonnac founder of the Order of the Daughters of Our Lady.
February 5: Mary of Carinthia is a canonized saint from Austria.
February 12: Eulalia of Barcelona is a 13-year-old early Christian martyr.
February 16: Juliana of Nicodemus, a martyr who lived in the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD.
February 25: Walpurga of Heidenheim has been canonized since 2006, lived and did good deeds in England in the 8th century AD.

March

April

April 1: Irene of Thessaloniki was born into a pagan family. IN adolescence accepted Christianity and preached Christian morality and righteousness.
April 2: Mary of Egypt is the patroness of penitent women.
April 5: Eva of Liege, a hermit who lived in the 13th century.
April 7: Maria Assunta Pallota, Ursulina Veneri.
April 11: Gemma Galgani, who lived in the 21st century, is the patron saint of students and pharmacists.
April 17: Katherine Tekakwitha Landrich, an Angongquin Indian saint who lived in the 17th century.
April 28: Theodora of Alexandria, Egyptian nun and associate who lived in the 4th century.

May

June

June 4: Clotilde is the queen, patroness of adopted children and their parents, as well as brides.
June 9: Anna Maria Taigi, clairvoyant. Beatified.
June 10: Diana of Andalo, nun who founded the order. Blessed. Lived in the 13th century.
June 11: Paula Frassinetti devoted her life to raising girls and founded the congregation of the Sisters of St. Dorothea.
June 18: Elizabeth of Schönau, Maria Dolorosa of Brabant, Hosanna of Mantua.
June 19: Juliana of Falconieri, Italian nun who lived in the 14th century. Founded monastic order servite tertiaries for women.
June 20: Margaret Ebner, mystical writer, born in 1291.

July

August

August 11: Clara of Assisi, a virgin, had the gift of miracles and healed the sick.
August 12: Euprepia of Augsburg, martyr, patroness of the city of Augsburg.
August 17: Clara of Montefalco, saint, died in the 13th century, virgin, abbess of the monastery.
August 18: Helen, Roman Empress. She joined Christianity in the second half of her life. Mother of Emperor Constantine, who recognized Christianity as the state religion.
August 23: Rose from Lima, canonized immediately after her death. Pious maiden.
August 24: Maria Mikaela Desmezières, founder of the women's monastic congregation.
August 26: Joanna Elisabeth Bichier des Anges, saint who lived in the 18th century.
August 29: Candida of Rome, martyred on the Ostian road to Rome.

September

October

October 5: Galla of Rome, a pious empress who entered into an alliance with the Holy Church.
October 6: Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, pious virgin with stigmata.
October 7: Justina of Padua, early Christian saint to whom the Basilica of Saint Justina is dedicated.
October 15: Teresa of Avila, Carmelite, author of mystical Christian books.
October 20: Maria Bertilla Boscardin, nursed the sick during the First World War.
October 22: Salome from Galilee, a woman who followed Christ during his sermons.
October 31: Elizabeth of Hungary helped the poor and beggars and built hospitals.

November

November 2: Margaret of Lorraine, disgraced queen who died in exile. Holy.
November 6: Christina Bruco of Cologne, saint who lived in Scotland in the 8th century.
November 13: Augustina Pietrantoni, blessed.
November 15: Helen of Hungary, daughter of the Hungarian king. With her prayer she performed a miracle, stopping the flood of the Danube. She died at the age of 28.
November 17: Gertrude of Helfta. Mystic and saint. Author of religious mystical works.
November 20: Maria Fortunata, pious, reserved and kind princess.
November 22: Cecilia of Rome, virgin. She converted 400 people to Christianity with her preaching.

December

Catholic female names are very diverse and by reading the biographies of saints, you can choose a nickname that will protect the child from birth to death, to which he will turn with prayers for intercession. There are saints, patrons of emigrants, blind people, victims of violence, adopted daughters and many other intercessors. In addition, these names are ancient and very beautiful.

Name day (or namesake day) is a calendar day associated with one or more names. It has a religious origin: among Orthodox and Catholics who observe church and everyday rituals. Name days are celebrated on the day of remembrance of the saint in whose honor the person was named. And this saint becomes a Guardian Angel, i.e. heavenly protector of man.

In Russia before the revolution, name days were considered a more important holiday for Orthodox residents than birthdays.
It was also previously believed that naming a child by the name of a righteous man was good, but by the name of a martyr was not good. There was an opinion among the people that revealing the name before baptism was a grave sin that could lead to the death of a newborn. Before baptism, the child could be given some temporary name, for example a name. It was impossible to give a newborn the name of a deceased child, so that he would not inherit his fate. It was possible to name a deceased grandfather or grandmother after them if they were happy and lucky (it was believed that fate is inherited through a generation). If a woman had only girls, she had to give the last daughter her name so that the next one would be a boy. In order to deceive the illness that stuck to the child, it was necessary to temporarily call the boy with a female name and vice versa.

On name days in Rus' they always invited many guests and tried to create a rich table. Be sure to bake a big pie with porridge. “It’s not Maslenitsa without a pancake, it’s not a name day without a pie,” people said. At the very beginning of dinner, the pie was broken over the birthday boy’s head, sprinkled with porridge. This was supposed to signify prosperity for the whole next year. And the more porridge spills on the birthday boy, the better. In addition, so that luck would not leave the birthday boy, something was required to be broken on the name day. Also, according to custom, the birthday person who was given a gift on this day, at the end of the feast, himself had to give gifts to the guests in gratitude for the fact that they came to congratulate him.

The popular name for name day is angel day (the heavenly patron saint is often called “angel”), although name day and angel day (guardian angel) are different concepts. Angel Day is a conventional name that has nothing to do with a person’s guardian angel, whose day is celebrated on the days of all the Heavenly powers.

Below are the Saints - a list of saints revered by the church. There are many saints of the same name in the Saints, therefore, when determining the name day, the saint whose memory most closely follows the person’s date of birth is selected. If a person’s name is not in the Saints, then the person is baptized with the name closest in sound: for example: Dina -

Catholic calendar of names, like the Orthodox, was created in the tradition of venerating Christian saints. However, the different historical paths of the Western and Eastern Churches determined the differences in the names. The saints, who are included in both the Catholic and Orthodox calendars, were canonized before the schism of the general Christian church in 1054. After the 11th century, this process in Catholicism and Orthodoxy proceeded independently of each other. Therefore in Catholic calendar there are not many Greek names (Athinodorus, Dositheus, Galaktion), and in the Orthodox you will not find William, Edgar and Amalia. In addition to the names mentioned in the Bible, canon include names of Latin and Germanic origin. Some Catholic names have Russian analogues, for example, Lara - Lavrentiy, Angelika - Angelina, Zhanna - Joanna. The feast days of many saints in both calendars are celebrated on the same day. Just remember that in the Catholic Church, chronology is based on the Gregorian calendar ( new style), and in the Orthodox - according to the Julian (old style).

Peculiarities

The Catholic tradition of naming is based on the choice of names of saints enshrined in church calendars. The calendars of Catholics and Orthodox Christians coincide only partly- if the saints were canonized before the beginning of the eleventh century - before the Great Schism of the Churches. Subsequently, the canonization of saints in both branches of the Christian Church was carried out in their own way.

Names mentioned in the Bible and names of Latin and Germanic origin are considered Catholic.

Often parents first name the child, and then look for his holy protector in the calendar, check whether such a saint even exists. However, it is better to do the opposite - first choose a church intercessor, and then give a name to the child. And it is absolutely not necessary that the day of veneration of this saint be on the same dates as the child’s birthday, as the rectors of the Catholic parish claim.

The fact is that the day of remembrance of the saint, whose name is given to a Christian at baptism, is called name day. In Catholic calendars, as in Orthodox ones, the date of their death is noted - when they passed into a new, eternal life.

Attention! The Catholic calendar practically does not coincide with the calendar in the Orthodox calendar.

Catholics treat their names with great respect and name their children after saints. Therefore, when pronouncing, distortions or abbreviations of names are not allowed. However, names may sound different in different Catholic countries. At the same time, individual saints called themselves differently than is customary modern traditions spelling.

The relationship of Catholics to their heavenly patrons is closer and more reverent than that of representatives Orthodox faith. For Orthodox Christians, the saint in whose honor it is named is an abstract concept. And a Catholic communicates not only with patrons of the same name, but also with those saints who patronize certain deeds performed by a person.

When choosing, the following points are taken into account:

month and day of birth of the child;
some Catholic names have Russian analogues, for example, Angelica - Angelina, Jack - Eugene, Zhanna - Joanna;
the meaning of the name and character of the saint;
compatibility of first name with surname and patronymic.

In the Catholic Church, the calendar is marked according to the Gregorian calendar - a new style, while in orthodox calendar The Julian (old) style is observed.

Name giving according to calendar calendar by month

January

Male names according to the calendar in January and their meanings:

February

According to the calendar in February, the following Catholic names are chosen:

March

In March, according to the calendar, they are called by the following Catholic names:

April

The following Catholic saints are venerated in April:

Akakiy is a martyr, put on trial for his faith in Christ;
William - Saint William of Jelon;
Gerard - martyr Gerard of Hungary;
Herman - a reverend Spanish priest;
Donan - Bishop of Arezzo;
Ezekiel is a Christian prophet;
Marcel - French priest;
Pankarty - early Christian martyr;
Plato - healer from Ancyra;
Richard - Saint Richard of Wales.

May

The following Catholic saints are commemorated in May::

June

In June, such saints are venerated:

Anastasius - martyr of Epirus;
Anthony of Padua, Catholic preacher;
Isidore of Seville, scientist, bishop;
Lawrence - Archdeacon of the Christian community in Rome;
Manuel the martyr from Persia;
Onesimus is an apostle from the city of Colossae;
Zinovy – Bishop of Egei;
Solomon - prophet, king of Israel;
Trofim - disciple of the Apostle Paul;
Leonty - Patriarch of Jerusalem;
Macarius is a venerable hermit.

July

The name days of such saints are celebrated in July:

August

In August, according to the calendar, Catholics are called by these names:

Augustine the Blessed - hermit monk;
John is a Christian prophet;
Conrad is a British priest;
Marian - holy martyr from Rome;
Hippolytus - early Christian Roman writer, theologian;
Charles is the bishop of the Milan church;
Felix - holy British apostle;
Aristarchus - Bishop of Apamea;
Ustin is an apologist killed for his Christian religion;
Tryphon is a holy martyr.

September

In September the memory of such saints is honored:

October

In October the memory of the following personalities is honored::

Anthony of Padua, priest;
Arthur - an English monk who defended the interests of the Catholic Church;
Gregory - Roman educational theologian;
Rusticus - early Christian martyr, presbyter;
Maxim the Reverend Confessor;
Nikephoros Syrian monk, martyr;
Renat is an Italian Catholic bishop.

November

In November the memory of such saints is honored:

December

The name days of such Catholic saints are celebrated in December:

Alan - Bishop of Kemper;
Orestes of Sebaste - martyr;
Nicholas is the patron saint of Aarhus;
Franz Jägerstätter – blessed of the Roman Church;
Gabriel - blessed archangel;
Hartmann is a member of the Order of St. Anne;
Evgraf is a holy martyr who died because of his faith in Christ;
Claudius Interamnsky - blessed warrior, Catholic, suffered for his faith;
Roger Cadwallador - Catholic blessed;
Edmund is a priest of the Berlin diocese;
Jason is a church leader in the Principality of Lithuania.

Choosing suitable name for a boy, it is important to remember the main thing - the son will bear this name all his life. You should think carefully about all your options before making a decision. It is better to abandon rare unusual names if they do not fit well with the surname and patronymic, so that in the future this will not cause ridicule and condemnation from others.