[Enalsebeerkawl]

Greetings to all on this list!

I live in a small midwestern college town which is home to a state university that specializes in agriculture, veterinary science and engineering. We are working to establish a new mission parish in this town, and eventually we hope to submit a patron saint to our bishop.

It seems to me that it would be appropriate four our community to choose a patron saint who came from an agricultural or farming background.

So here’s my question: Is there an Orthodox saint who is a patron saint of farmers or agriculturalists?

If you were to ask this question of a Catholic, they have it easy – they have a patron saint for everything, and there are numerous places to look up that information. As I understand, we Orthodox also have patron saints for various professions – but I know of no reputable “Compendium of Orthodox Patron Saints” source that I could use to find out the answer to these questions.

Do you have any answers to these questions? Or sources that I could turn to?

-Brad

[R1king]

For animals and livestock

• Holy Martyr Mamas (September 2)
• Ss. Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus: horses (January 16)
• St. George: cattle & herds (April 23)
• St. Modestus of Jerusalem (December 18)
• St. Parthenius of Radovizlios: cattle (July 21)
• St. Tryphon: geese (February 1)

For protection of crops from pests

• St. Gerasimos the New Ascetic (October 20)
• St. Michael of Synnada (May 23)

For protection of gardens against pests

• Holy Great Martyr Tryphon: also for hunters and Patron of Moscow (February 1)

And one of my favorite Saints who is not found here but is very important in the agricultural life in Mediterranean Orthodox areas is Prophet Elias. We pray for intercession to him about rain and against the drought. There are countless churches dedicated to him and usually those are built at the top of hills or mountains. Prophet Elias' feastday is July 20.

[Prosocorneliay]

For protection of gardens against pests

• Holy Great Martyr Tryphon: also for hunters and Patron of Moscow (February 1)

And one of my favorite Saints who is not found here but is very important in the agricultural life in Mediterranean Orthodox areas is Prophet Elias. We pray for intercession to him about rain and against the drought. There are countless churches dedicated to him and usually those are built at the top of hills or mountains. Prophet Elias' feastday is July 20.[/QUOTE]


i would also add to ninas list holy matyr phocas the gardener

[Agedprepdoock]

i would also add to ninas list holy matyr phocas the gardener

Andreas you reminded me we have also Saint Christo the Gardener (martyred in Constantinople).

[anxpuna]

There is also St. Fiacre [Fiachra in Gaelic], d. 670, fd 30 August; usually depicted in art with a spade. His statue in many gardens is often confused with that of the Roman Catholic saint, Francis of Assisi. St. Fiachra is the patron saint of gardeners, herbalists, florists, needle-makers and cab drivers (see below). Struggled at the hermitage of Breuil, a dependency of the Abbey of Meaux. A google search will reveal a wealth of biographical information.

If your mission was dedicated to St. Fiachra, it would undoubtedly be the only contemporary dedication to him in the Orthodox world. In that vein, here is how our parish (Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Methuen, Massachusetts) chose our patron saint, at the suggestion of our bishop at that time (1989), Vladika Hilarion of Manhattan: we had a parish meeting before vigil and everyone wrote down their choice on a separate ballot. Then Fr. Nicholas had the oldest parishioner present select three ballots, which he put in a dish on the altar. After Liturgy the next day, the youngest parishioner selected our name from the three remaining ballots, and it was St. Xenia. The amazing thing is, that for several months beforehand, we had been having moliebens after every Liturgy to St. Xenia to help us find a place to start our mission, since she is the patron of the homeless. Not only that, but three years after our mission started, we learned of an old Russian Orthodox Cemetery in the next town that had been taken over by the municipality after the original parish went defunct in the 1960s. We approached the town, and they returned the title to the cemetery to our parish, with it's cash endowment. We set the endowment aside as a permanent care fund for the graves, but we built our new church in that cemetery, just like the church that St. Xenia helped to build in the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

David James

fiacre
French coach for hire, named for the Hotel Saint-Fiacre, in Paris, where it was introduced in the 1640s. The first fiacres were boxlike, four-wheeled, open, hooded vehicles that were drawn by three horses and were designed to navigate the muddy Parisian streets. In 1794 about 800 were in use in Paris, and by the 19th century there were more than 1,500. The 19th-century fiacre resembled the carriages for hire used in England and the United States that were known as hackneys.

Andreas you reminded me we have also Saint Christo the Gardener (martyred in Constantinople).