Topic: What Would You Name a Western Orthodox School?

[Joseph Hazen]

If you were to name a school after a Western Orthodox saint, who would you choose and why?

[IXOYE]

Saint Benedict.  Saint Benedict of Nursia is a very well-known saint (from the West and venerated in the East and West) and his rule for monks is also well known.

[Shanghaiski]

St. Alfred's. After the English king St. Alfred the Great, who saved the kingdom from Viking invasion on one hand and ignorance on the other through educational reforms. He founded schools, contributed to Anglo-Saxon literature, and was sort of a Renaissance man.

[orthonorm]

St. Peter's

[LBK]

St Vincent of Lerins, who gave us a fitting definition of Orthodoxy:  we hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.

[witega]

St. John Cassian - read his conferences. Not much else to say about that.
St. Bede the Venerable - "Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples" is the basically the start of English history
St. Caedmon of Whitby - first poet in the English language
St. Ireneus of Lyons

[Alpo]

St. Augustine. IIRC he had fairly colorful life before converting to Orthodoxy but when he repented he wrote a whole book about it. A book which is still seen as a prime example of basic Orthodox piety. Also, he had various potentially problematic views and is revered as a Saint despite that. And the most importantly, he had troubles learning Greek. 

Sounds like a good model for young and old Orthodox Christians alike. We all make mistakes but we still have hope.

[JamesR]

St. Augustine of Hippo because--even if he made theological errors--his life is still very inspirational and he loved God with all his heart. It is also fair to mention that many of the errors he made he later corrected in his Retractions, along with the fact that he never had a good spiritual father to mentor or teach him proper theology.

[Alpo]

along with the fact that he never had a good spiritual father to mentor or teach him proper theology.

St. Ambrose of Milan?

[Gorazd]

St. Patrick, enlightener of Ireland

[NicholasMyra]

St. Isidore of Seville or St. Beatus of Liébana, for the scholarly connection.

[Cyrillic]

along with the fact that he never had a good spiritual father to mentor or teach him proper theology.

St. Ambrose of Milan?

He never spoke to him personally, he said somewhere in his confessions.

[neon_knights]

Columba. Nobody ever names anything after Columba.

[Shanghaiski]

Columba. Nobody ever names anything after Columba.

That's sort of true. I've heard priests mispronounce his name as St. Columbia of Ionia. Poor St. Columba.

[age234]

Wilfrid of Ripon, Willibrord of Utrecht, or Boniface of Germany: all important evangelist figures who deserve far more recognition than they receive.

And all of them turned pagan children into saints by teaching, so that's a good patronage.

[Alpo]

along with the fact that he never had a good spiritual father to mentor or teach him proper theology.

St. Ambrose of Milan?

He never spoke to him personally, he said somewhere in his confessions.

Really? D'uh. I recall reading that it was sermons of St. Ambrose who made him open to Christianity and I assumed that of course he must have talked to him too. It's been too long since I opened my copy of Confesssions. Mea culpa.

[Christopher McAvoy]

Rufinus of Aquileia

(Rufinus Aquileiensis; 340/345 – 410) was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is most known as a translator of Greek patristic material into Latin—especially the work of Origen.  

We can hardly overestimate the influence which Rufinus exerted on Western theologians by thus putting the great Greek fathers into the Latin tongue.

http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/20_40_0345-0410-_Rufinus_Aquileiensis.html

The fact that his name is to this day ascribed on the latin translations of many of the most important fathers of Church is reason enough to consider him.'

another possibility:

St. Dionysius Exiguus (one could say Denis perhaps)

The author of a continuation of Dionysius's Computus, writing in 616, described Dionysius as a "most learned abbot of the city of Rome", and the Venerable Bede accorded him the honorific abbas, which could be applied to any monk, especially a senior and respected monk, and does not necessarily imply that Dionysius ever headed a monastery; indeed, Dionysius's friend Cassiodorus stated in Institutiones that he was still only a monk late in life.

Though neither of these names is going to be popular for people to easily roll off the tongue in english I am afraid.

Wilfrid of Ripon, Willibrord of Utrecht, or Boniface

Now thats a trio of names thats quite distinctively western and i think would roll off the tongue more smoothly in english.
They remind St. Olaf's college in Mnnesota, USA.

[Joseph Hazen]

Thanks all, learned of a few great saints and we did actually choose one recommend here!

[Αριστοκλής]

Saint Benedict.  Saint Benedict of Nursia is a very well-known saint (from the West and venerated in the East and West) and his rule for monks is also well known.

My first thought and for the same reasons.

[Alveus Lacuna]

St. Thomas Aquinas?

[Christopher McAvoy]

St. Thomas Aquinas?

Besides the fact that he has at least 100 schools and educational institutions name after him already, he is too late to be considered an official Saint for the Orthodox Churches.

Nearly all the other named mentioned are rarely chosen to be in the name of anything anymore.
One of the advantages of western rite orthodoxy is it does make you aware of the foundations of saints that the west was built on.
People who receive very little attention and are now nearly forgotten. Though they have many small parishes named after them over in europe, longstanding for hundreds of years, they have generally been forgotten by most roman catholics and protestants, who instead focus on much newer saints most of the time.  

In a perfect ecumenical united faith (rome, constantinople, moscow together as one), I wouldnt mind newer saints as well, but the older ones are so equal in interest that it's not that difficult a change to emphasize them instead.

[Frederic]

St. Alfred's. After the English king St. Alfred the Great, who saved the kingdom from Viking invasion on one hand and ignorance on the other through educational reforms. He founded schools, contributed to Anglo-Saxon literature, and was sort of a Renaissance man.

Alfred the Great is not a saint. Perhaps Edward the Confessor, but he was canonized late, in the 12th century.

[Shanghaiski]

St. Alfred's. After the English king St. Alfred the Great, who saved the kingdom from Viking invasion on one hand and ignorance on the other through educational reforms. He founded schools, contributed to Anglo-Saxon literature, and was sort of a Renaissance man.

Alfred the Great is not a saint. Perhaps Edward the Confessor, but he was canonized late, in the 12th century.

Alfred the Great, King of the English, was known for his holy life and dedication to education. He is an Orthodox saint.

From this site: http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/saintsa.htm

Alfred the Great Oct 26
849-899. King of Wessex and all Orthodox England who defeated the Danish invaders and ensured the growth of the Church in England. A patron of sacred learning, Alfred the Great himself translated into English such works as the Dialogues of St Gregory the Great. His memory is held by many in great veneration as a patriot and model of Orthodox kingship.

[Cyrillic]

Wilfrid of Ripon, Willibrord of Utrecht, or Boniface of Germany: all important evangelist figures who deserve far more recognition than they receive.

Pretty much half of the RC schools here, and the RC bible translation, is named after St. Willibrord. He's the St. Patrick of the Low Countries.

What about St. John Cassian? The perfect mix of East and West.

[dzheremi]

Arsenius the Great

He was a Roman, and he worked as an imperial tutor in Rome before becoming an anchorite in Egypt, so I would think it fits quite well. Plus, he was famous for talking very little, so that ought to be a good model for the kids.

[Orthodox11]

St. Alban the Protomartyr

[Frederic]

St. Alfred's. After the English king St. Alfred the Great, who saved the kingdom from Viking invasion on one hand and ignorance on the other through educational reforms. He founded schools, contributed to Anglo-Saxon literature, and was sort of a Renaissance man.

Alfred the Great is not a saint. Perhaps Edward the Confessor, but he was canonized late, in the 12th century.

Alfred the Great, King of the English, was known for his holy life and dedication to education. He is an Orthodox saint.

From this site: http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/saintsa.htm

Alfred the Great Oct 26
849-899. King of Wessex and all Orthodox England who defeated the Danish invaders and ensured the growth of the Church in England. A patron of sacred learning, Alfred the Great himself translated into English such works as the Dialogues of St Gregory the Great. His memory is held by many in great veneration as a patriot and model of Orthodox kingship.

Thank you for the information. His name is not mentioned in all calendars, and not in the Russian calendar I'm using.

[Shanghaiski]

St. Alfred's. After the English king St. Alfred the Great, who saved the kingdom from Viking invasion on one hand and ignorance on the other through educational reforms. He founded schools, contributed to Anglo-Saxon literature, and was sort of a Renaissance man.

Alfred the Great is not a saint. Perhaps Edward the Confessor, but he was canonized late, in the 12th century.

Alfred the Great, King of the English, was known for his holy life and dedication to education. He is an Orthodox saint.

From this site: http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/saintsa.htm

Alfred the Great Oct 26
849-899. King of Wessex and all Orthodox England who defeated the Danish invaders and ensured the growth of the Church in England. A patron of sacred learning, Alfred the Great himself translated into English such works as the Dialogues of St Gregory the Great. His memory is held by many in great veneration as a patriot and model of Orthodox kingship.

Thank you for the information. His name is not mentioned in all calendars, and not in the Russian calendar I'm using.

Not even all Eastern saints make it into calendars. Even the St. Herman Brotherhood calendar is incomplete. There are many saints who have been venerated locally for centuries and are just beginning to be put into big compilations of calendars and synaxaria.

[Fr.Aidan]

Just confirming: King Alfred has never been named a Saint by any Orthodox Church, Western or Eastern. It was the protestant Anglicans who first declared him a saint, in the 19th century.

Why not St. John Cassian?

[Shanghaiski]

Just confirming: King Alfred has never been named a Saint by any Orthodox Church, Western or Eastern. It was the protestant Anglicans who first declared him a saint, in the 19th century.

"Never been named a saint" is pretty absolutist, Father, considering that most of our saints were added to the calendar not through formal processes, but by writing their names in and being venerated locally. It's clear St. Alfred is venerated by many Orthodox, in England especially.

[Fr.Aidan]

King Alfred was never venerated as a saint by the Anglo-Saxons. So there is no original local cultus. There was some interest in the late middle ages in him, in England, but the appeal to the papacy was unsuccessful. In modern times, there has been a private veneration to him, as to Fr. Seraphim Rose, on the part of Orthodox individuals. So who knows what may happen.