How to choose an icon by a person's name and date of birth. Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign

In Rus', it has long been the case that most people are given names in honor of saints. For this reason, they are created on which the face of a saint is placed. For every believer, such images have always been very important and greatly appreciated. Icons were the patrons of people throughout their lives. The heavenly helper will help and guide, protect from troubles and misfortunes, suggest the right path, prevent a possible disaster, and if it is sent to a person for spiritual benefit, it will help to survive it. Parents ordered icons for their children as full-length icons, godparents bought them for their godchildren.

The image of the saint became associated with the Guardian Angel, because such icons were hung over the baby's manger. When the child grew up, they took their proper place in the home iconostasis. Now the name day is called the Day of the Angel.

At baptism, the holy father names the name of the saint by whom the person is named. If the baptism was a very long time ago, and there are no witnesses who can say in honor of which saint the person is named, then the saint whose birth is closest to the date of birth of the person is considered the patron saint. It is believed that according to the way they called it will turn out future life. After all, praying to his patron, a person wants to imitate him in actions and thoughts.

How to choose a name icon

Women's names in the calendar are not so common. That is why, you can acquire the icon of the Great Martyr Barbara, the Holy Martyr Tatyana or another patroness of heaven. If the girl's name is Anna, then sellers usually offer with the image of the mother Holy Mother of God, Righteous Anna, but besides her, there are 32 more saints who were named by that name.

The same situation occurs with many male names. If you look at the annals, then many saints were called John, Basil, Nicholas. More than forty Johns. But for some reason, people are mainly offered the image of St. John the Baptist or the Apostle John the Theologian.

Now it is widely believed that for rare men, the icon of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste will be the personal icon. Of those that exist today, only the names of Leonty, Ilya, Alexander, Heraclius, Cyril, Athanasius, Valery and Nikolai have their patrons among the saints depicted on this icon. Today, children are no longer named after other saints who died in Lake Sebaste.

It does not matter at all, the saint is depicted in full height, or explained. Next to it may be the inscription "Guardian Angel". Also, very often next to the saints they depict Christ the Savior or the Most Holy Theotokos. The icon, which is painted according to the growth of a person in a given period of his life, began to be called a measured one. They are usually made for newborns.

Personalized icons are always a very valuable gift. After all, this is not just a picture, but an image that brings a person closer to a saint, his patron, who calls on the mercy of God through his prayers. To do something nice close person, you can give not only icons depicting saints, but also plates with drawings on religious topics.

Everyone has their own guardian angel and their own intercessor icon, which is given from birth. Icons "Joy of All Who Sorrow" and Kazan Mother of God- intercessors of those born from June 22 to July 22. Saint Cyril is their guardian angel.

In the “Kuznetsov’s letter” technique, one can show not only the entire action from beginning to end, but also be present ... ”. Writing a nominal icon takes from 10 days, depending on the size and complexity of the plot. The need for a constant feeling of God's invisible protection and connection with the Higher World gives rise to the need in us to bring the icon into our home, having determined for it a worthy place in its space.

Also, the saint of the same name, who is especially revered in the family, regardless of the time of the celebration of the name day, is often considered the heavenly patron. A nominal icon has a great spiritual value for a person, since his heavenly patron and intercessor is imprinted on it. At the same time, we mention that in the home iconostasis there must certainly be an image of the Savior and to the left of Him - the Mother of God.

Color and ornament, like hagiographic scenes, symbolically convey the essence of the earthly feat of the saint and the place at the throne of God, which is now established for him by God forever and ever ... It is clear that the icons were painted for three different individuals, three human souls, each of which needs its own spiritual treatment.

The patron saint appears in a person with the first heartbeat at birth and protects us until the moment of death. There are also people who believe in divine powers and refer to such power as magic wand, that is, when asked, they immediately expect the immediate fulfillment of their desire. The Monk Seraphim of Sarov and Blessed Sylvester protect those who were born on the days from December 22 to January 20.

Those born between February 21 and March 20 are protected by Saint Alexis and Saint Milentius of Antioch. People born between May 21 and June 21 can recognize the patron saint by date of birth. They are assisted throughout their lives by St. Constantine and Alexei of Moscow. There is also an Orthodox patron saint for people born on July 23 - August 23.

Nominal icon - a great spiritual value

Those born from August 24 to September 23 will be helped by John, Paul and Saint Alexandra. Those born between November 23 and December 21 are under the protection of Saint Barbara and Blessed Nicholas the Pleasant. Icons for protection - "The Sign" and "Tikhvin". The day of the Angel in the Orthodox Church is very much appreciated, because this is the day of the heavenly intercessor, the saint before the person whose name is given to a Christian.

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As a rule, the day of the heavenly patron is the next day of the celebration of the saint, whose name the person bears. To determine the name of your heavenly patron, use the Orthodox calendar. It contains all the birthdays of the saints. And if your name is not in the calendar Orthodox calendar, then at baptism for a person a name is always chosen that is very close in sound to yours. Also in the church there are traditional other soundings of names. Example: Victoria - Nika, Svetlana - Fotinia, etc.

Which patron saint protects you?

In the mind of a believer a happy family- this is mutual love, support, respect, and this is all accompanied by the Lord. Families ... Complexity modern life is that it does not allow people to live in peace and relax a little. In Orthodoxy, there has long been a tradition to name a newborn with the name of a saint.

There are countless icons in temples, and they are all revered

One, the Guardian, protects us from evil and troubles, the other, the saint, intercedes for us before God. Therefore, in the red corner of the house, next to the images of the Savior and the Mother of God, icons of the namesake saints are necessarily placed.

Saint Nicholas the Pleasant and Elijah the Prophet protect those born from July 23 to August 23, and the icon "Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos" protects them. Almost every believer in the house has Orthodox icons, and if someone does not, then these people go to church and pray there. Although an icon is not at all necessary for prayer. Orthodox believers should not forget that their guardian angel is primarily a patron saint by name and date of birth.

Many people wonder what their name and date of birth are. Our article is entirely devoted to the answer. You will learn the name of your patron saint, and information will also be provided on how best to celebrate name days. This day is incredibly important for every person. So, please read the information below carefully.

In our time, more and more people, after a long break, begin to revive interest in their heavenly patrons and name days. But many continue to confuse the concepts of “name day”, “birthday” and “guardian angel day”. Also, often people simply do not think about why they are celebrated, say, today, and not tomorrow or some other day. Even more often, having learned that there are several saints with a certain name, people begin to wonder which of these saints is the patron saint for this or that person. Let's try to understand these questions and find answers to them. These concepts simply need to be distinguished.

Name day, guardian angel day and birthday

I think everyone knows about what a birthday is and loves to celebrate it, convene guests and receive gifts. Everything is simple here: birthday is the day on which a person was born. But let's think about it, why is it that quite often a person is called a “birthday man” on his birthday? This happens because, thanks to a long atheistic period throughout the post-Soviet space, people simply began to confuse the birthday and the day of their name day, sometimes combining them into one date. However, “birthday” and “name day” are different concepts. It is worth mentioning that before the revolution in tsarist Russia name days for the Orthodox were much more important holiday than a birthday. Nowadays, they are celebrated much less frequently. This is due to the ignorance of people about the significance of the name day. But every year the situation changes and more and more people show interest in them and their heavenly patrons. So what is this day? Believers also designate it with the word "the namesake". Do you know the meanings of the words "namesake", "teza"? They denote a person who has the same name. So: a certain calendar day, on which one or another saint or several saints are remembered at once, is a namesake, festive for a person bearing the name of the saint who is remembered on this day. In the common people, especially in the western parts of Ukraine and Belarus, the name day is often referred to as “the day of the angel”, “the day of the guardian angel (guardian angel)”, which, of course, is also not entirely correct. The mistake occurs for the reason that believing people sometimes call their saints angels, guardian angels. But this is not a saint, this is precisely an angel, a good spirit, given by God to a person during baptism, so that he would instruct a person during his earthly life on the path of salvation. But a person cannot know his personal name, since he is invisible to a person. Therefore, for each guardian angel, a separate day is not assigned for his remembrance. But certain days have been established, on which all heavenly angelic forces are honored.

How to find out the name of the patron saint

So how do you find out, and when is the day of veneration of your saint appointed? And what are the patron saints by name and date of birth for each of us? After all, who decides all this? So, in order: firstly, in order to find out which of the saints is our heavenly patron, we need to look into the Saints, or, as this church-folk calendar is also called, the Months. It is there that the names of all the saints and the dates for their memory are recorded. And these dates are set by the Church, which ranks this or that person as a saint. Secondly, patron saints are usually identified by name and date of birth. Well, this is understandable, because we know our name. However, what should we do if several saints with our name are mentioned in the Saints at once? In such a case, we must choose the saint whose memory is honored closest to our birthday. It should also be noted that the list with saints is constantly updated, as more and more saints are glorified. For example, at the Bishops' Council in 2000, the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia were glorified, and if a person was baptized before 2000, then the saints by name and date of birth are determined according to the publications of the Saints earlier than 2000. And if after, then the saint is determined from a wider list by date of birth, according to the publications of the Saints later than 2000. But what if we don’t find a saint with his own name in the Saints? For example, if a person is wearing Christian name? In this case, we must choose a patron saint close in name to ours. So, Dina becomes Evdokia, Angelica becomes Angelina, Zhanna Ioanna, and Svetlana becomes Photinia. But Yuri at baptism is called George. Does this mean that a person in ordinary worldly life is called by this new name? No. In worldly life, of course, he remains Yuri. And in church life, at, say, confession or communion, calling himself, he must give the church name: George. When submitting notes about health or repose, the church name of a person is also written. Previously, when they decided to name and baptize a newborn, they usually looked into the Saints and looked at the memory of which saints the Church honors on this day, and chose a patron saint for the baby by name from this list. It is on the day of the baptism of the child, and not on the day of his birth. Now this is a forgotten tradition, and in our time, few adhere to it. They now name them mainly in honor of their relatives or in honor of some favorite characters in books or films, but not in honor of saints. This also happens because many do not know which patron saints exist by date of birth and name. Using the example of some names, let's see how many saints there are in one name.

Saint patron named Andrew

The name Andrew is of Greek origin. In translation, it means "courageous, brave." Because the given name very common - that was the name of one of the twelve apostles of Christ - then, accordingly, there should be a lot of saints with that name. Let's see, is that right? Let's take a look at Saints. Yes, indeed, there are many saints named Andrew. Here they are. Hieromartyr Andrew, Bishop of Ufa (January 8), Martyr Andrew of Lampsakia (May 31), Apostle Andrew the First-Called (July 3, July 13, December 13), Rev. Andrei Rublev, icon painter (July 17), (October 30).

So, as we can see, the choice is rich. This is far from full list. Remember that Andrew, in order to determine his heavenly patron, needs to choose a saint named Andrew from the list, which would be the closest to his birthday.

Vladimir

What is the patron saint named Vladimir? It is Slavic. The first part of the name goes back to the Proto-Indo-European basis and means the word "strength, power." The second part of the name is borrowed from Germanic languages meaning "great, famous". However, this second part (-mers) among the Slavs, under the influence of the word "peace", took on a different meaning, corresponding to the specified word. It turns out that the name Vladimir means the combination "owning the world"; at the same time the world in the meaning of "the Universe, the globe", and the world in the meaning of "peace, peace". The original name was pagan. But after the baptism of Rus', subsequently, the name Vladimir was canonized, since Rus' was baptized by Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich. There are much fewer saints with this name than in the case of Andrei. Let's take a look at Saints. Hieromartyr Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (February 1), Martyr John Vladimir, Prince of Serbia (June 4), Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir (July 28), Martyr Priest Vladimir (August 29), Right-Believing Prince Vladimir Yaroslavich of Novgorod (October 17).

Name Dmitry

Now we will find out which patron saint named Dmitry. This Greek name means "dedicated to the goddess Demeter". The established church form of the name is Demetrius. There are also many saints with this name, since the name Dmitry is very common to this day. What kind of saints with the name Demetrius do the Saints mention? Saint Demetrius Skevophylax, the Righteous Demetrius of Yuryevsky, son of the Right-Believing Prince Svyatoslav (February 16), Passion-bearer, Right-Believing Tsarevich Demetrius of Uglich and Moscow (May 28, June 5, June 16), Martyr Demetrius of Kazan (October 15), Martyr Demetrius (November 28), Righteous Dimitri (December 14).

Alexandra

Let's talk about which patron saint is named after Alexander. This female is of Greek origin and is translated as “protector of people”, “brave”. There are, frankly, few saints with this name, here they are: Martyr Alexandra of Pontus (April 2), Martyr Alexandra of Rome, Nicomedia, Empress (May 6), Martyr Alexandra of Corinth (May 31, November 19), St. Alexandra Diveevskaya (June 26 ), Holy Martyr Empress Alexandra (July 17). In Russia, by far, the most popular saint bearing this name is Russian empress, wife of Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor.

Anna

It is worth talking about which patron saint named Anna. If all the previous names we are considering (with the exception of Vladimir) were of Greek origin, then this name is Hebrew, and translates as "grace, favor, mercy, dear." This name is biblical. Since the name is very common throughout the world, there are, of course, many saints with this name, unlike Alexandra: the prophetess Anna (February 16, December 22, martyr Anna Gotfskaya (April 8), grand duchess(June 25, August 3, October 15), Venerable Anna of Bithinskaya (June 26, November 11), Martyr Anna (July 18).

Elena

What are the patron saints named after Elena? It is of Greek origin. Interestingly, its etymology is still unclear. There were suggestions that it is associated with the sun god Helios or indicates the self-name of the Greeks - the Hellenes. However, despite their popularity, there are very few saints with this name. Martyr Elena (January 28), Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Elena (June 3), Martyr Elena, daughter of the Apostle Alpheus (June 8), Rev. Elena Diveevskaya (June 10), Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, in holy baptism Elena (July 24), Righteous Elena, Queen of Serbia

A little about the icons of patron saints

There are many icons depicting saints. And it is very good if a person has at home or carries with him an image of his heavenly patron saint. You can turn to the saint with any request, our patron saints hear us and help. In order to choose the right icon with the image of our saint, we need to know about our patron, how he is depicted on the icons, go to the church shop and choose the right one. It will be good if the icon of the patron saint by name will always be next to you. In addition, let's say that it would be nice to know at least one prayer addressed to your saint.

How to celebrate the patron saint's day?

If you understand the difference between a name day and a birthday, you certainly understand the difference between celebrations. On the name day, we, first of all, remember our saints so that they also remember us. On the day of the name day, believers usually go to the temple, confess and take communion. But, of course, there are no obstacles for guests, a gala dinner and gifts. But this should not be noisy fun and a feast with alcoholic drinks. It is better if it is a sincere conversation filled with meaning and content. It is worth noting that if your name day falls during Lent, you need to cook only Lenten dishes. Follow this rule. If your name day falls on a weekday in Lent, they must be moved to Sunday or Saturday.

Some people do not celebrate their name day in any way. This is extremely wrong, because, in addition to religious overtones, it is also just a good bright day filled with joy.

very important with early age teach children to celebrate name days, take them to church for communion, as well as give them small gifts and arrange a quiet feast with the family. In the future, the child throughout his life will treat this day as a festive and special one.

And further. Never forget to congratulate your relatives and friends on their birthday. Give them small gifts. Your attention on this day will be very pleasant to them. Visit them whenever possible. Knowing which patron saints your loved ones have by date of birth and name will help you with choosing a gift if you decide to present an icon.

We really hope that this article was helpful to you. You know what patron saints are by name and date of birth, as well as how to identify them. That's not all. You found out which patron saint is named after you. We also hope that you will interesting information how to celebrate birthdays. For many people, this is another reason for a feast, which is not right. Now you will know what actions are best done on this day of his name day, wonderful for every person. How to find out the name of the patron saint? It's not that hard. You just need to show a keen interest.

Find out your patron saint:

Russian Orthodox Church venerates a large number of saints. It is strong with them - those who suffered for the true faith, or performed another feat for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the particles of the relics of the holy martyrs, the most important church service is performed - the Divine Liturgy.

Everyone should know and honor their saint Orthodox Christian, but first you need to find out who your patron saint is. There is a special rite of giving a name, when the priest, after reading a prayer, gives a name to a newborn baby, but these days this ceremony is rarely performed, since not everyone knows about it. Parents name the child themselves, and, bringing it to the church for baptism, it sometimes turns out that there is no saint with that name in the calendar. Then another name is chosen for the child, called a baptismal one. Usually given a consonant name native name, for example, the patron saint of Christina would be Saint Christina, and Jeanne would be Saint Joan.

But most often it happens that the birth and baptismal names coincide. Then it remains to find out which of the saints is your patron? If there are several namesake, that is, there are several saints named after you, according to church calendar the saint is chosen whose day of memory is the closest after your birthday. To facilitate this search, we have developed this section.

How to use the section

It should be noted that in Lately The list of newly glorified saints – New Martyrs of the 20th century is constantly growing. If you are looking for a patron saint for your baby, then the new martyrs must be taken into account when searching. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill gave his blessing to name the children in honor of the New Martyrs so that their veneration would grow and spread. But if you are looking for a patron saint for an adult, be careful, because at the time when he was baptized, many saints had not yet been glorified.