Topic: Another patron saint?

[tuesdayschild]

Does the Church have a means to provide a person with an additional patron saint, such that one who was baptized "John," for example, would thereafter receive Communion as "John Mark"?  I saw this once, but the circumstances were irregular.  Ever since, I've wondered if it were an established practice.

[ozgeorge]

The name we receive when we are recieved into the Church is the name of the "new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (1 Corinthians 5:17) It is a single name because we are a single hypostasis (person). For this reason, traditionally we have only one Patron.

[SolEX01]

I know of a person who was baptized with 2 names; hence, she received Communuion with both names.

My niece has been baptized with 2 names; hence, she can theoretically receive Communion with both names being said.

My niece's second baptized name is not her legal middle name....

[ozgeorge]

I know of a person who was baptized with 2 names; hence, she received Communuion with both names.

My niece has been baptized with 2 names; hence, she can theoretically receive Communion with both names being said.

My niece's second baptized name is not her legal middle name....

That's interesting. Does she celebrate only one Name Day or two?

[SolEX01]

^ My niece has a non-Orthodox birth name and an Orthodox baptized name appended to her birth name.  If she celebrates a Nameday, she shares the nameday with her sponsor and the Virgin Mary.

[Justin Kissel]

Fwiw, my wife only has one patron (Mary of Egypt), but I believe the priest sometimes says "the servant of God, Mary Cecilia" when she gets communion. I believe this is just force of habit, and not something that he does intentionally.

[ozgeorge]

^ Somehow I don't think that St. Cecilia has stopped praying for her. After all, she prayed her into the Church to begin with.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Does the Church have a means to provide a person with an additional patron saint, such that one who was baptized "John," for example, would thereafter receive Communion as "John Mark"?  I saw this once, but the circumstances were irregular.  Ever since, I've wondered if it were an established practice.

I've seen this twice, and both were irregular circumstances. I don't believe it's an established practice, but it is certainly well within oikonomia.

[LBK]

I concur with Mr Y. Being baptised in two names is without doubt an irregularity. Such a "double naming" at an Orthodox baptism is often the result of an impasse between, say, the parents and the Godparents, where each refuses to budge from the name each has chosen. There is nothing in Orthodox Tradition which allows this, both in practice, nor in the text or rubrics of the baptismal service. Yet, understandably, in extreme situations, some priests have seen it fit, in the spirit of economia, to baptise individuals in two names.

One should only have one baptismal name, therefore one patron saint. However, there is NOTHING which should stop an Orthodox Christian from praying to, or having a particular devotion to, a saint or saints who are not their baptismal patron saints.

[tuesdayschild]

I've seen this twice, and both were irregular circumstances. I don't believe it's an established practice, but it is certainly well within oikonomia.

By "irregular circumstances," I meant that it was in the context of an "independent" parish.  (I won't even call it Orthodox.)  Is that what you meant?

[Basil 320]

While we have one patron saint, nothing precludes us from having a particular devotion to other saints too, such as the "All Holy One," or the patron saint of ones parish, or other saints, such as one who's intercession is known to heal; like St. Nectarios.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

By "irregular circumstances," I meant that it was in the context of an "independent" parish.  (I won't even call it Orthodox.)  Is that what you meant?

No, I have seen it at my very canonical parish. I thought the term "irregular" to be a polite way of saying that the circumstances involve some personal information of people who may not wish such information disclosed on the Internet.