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Saint Theodora in a monk’s hood leading laden camels, a woodcut from a Venetian book of saints’ lives, 1497

Saint Theodora of Alexandria

Did penance as a monk in a men’s monastery and raised a child falsely laid at her door

Western calendar
Not kept
Orthodox calendar
11 September (24 September on the old calendar)

Theodora was a young wife of Alexandria who was led into adultery, and in her remorse she left home secretly, dressed as a man and was received into a men's monastery as the monk Theodore. Years later a girl accused the monk Theodore of fathering her child; Theodora said only "As God is my witness, I did not do this," and when the monks believed the girl she was cast out with the infant and raised him for seven years in a hut nearby, seeing in the trial the atonement of her old sin. Only at her death did the monks learn she was a woman, and the boy she raised later became abbot of that same monastery.

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It is the day each year when the Church remembers a saint in its prayers, and for most saints it is the day they died and went home to God. Many saints here have two dates, because the Western and Orthodox Churches keep their own calendars, and some Orthodox churches still count by the old Julian calendar, which runs thirteen days behind ours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

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We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

Every saint here, by feast day