Names of female saints: Eleni, Sofia, Foteini, Thekla and their name days

Many Greek women's names lead back to a woman saint, but not all of them. Some come from the feasts of the Virgin, such as Maria and Despina (see names from the feasts of the Virgin Mary); others are feminine forms of men's names, such as Georgia or Dimitra, and celebrate with a male saint. This guide is about the rest: names borne by the women saints themselves, from the first Christian century to the nineteenth.

The great martyrs in brief

The best-known group, the women great martyrs, has a guide of its own, the great martyrs and their names. Their days in short:

• Katerina (Aikaterini) on 25 November, Varvara (Barbara) on 4 December and Eirini (Irene) on 5 May;
• Kyriaki on 7 July, Marina on 17 July and Christina on 24 July;
• Paraskevi on 26 July, whom saint.gr calls a venerable martyr, Efimia on 16 September and 11 July, and Anastasia on 22 December and on Easter Sunday.

Equal to the apostles

Four women in the calendar carry the title isapostolos, Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Helen, 21 May

Saint Helen was born around 247 at Drepanum in Bithynia, of humble origin, and became the mother of Constantine the Great. Her son gave her the title of Augusta and put her image on coins. saint.gr credits her with churches in Rome, Constantinople, Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives; in 326, in Jerusalem, she found the Cross. She died around 327, aged about eighty, and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. Mother and son share 21 May, so Eleni celebrates with Konstantinos and Konstantina.

Thecla, 24 September

Saint Thecla came from a pagan family of Iconium and was won over by the Apostle Paul, who was preaching in the house of Onesiphorus next door. She broke off her engagement to a pagan named Thamyris and followed Paul to Antioch in Pisidia. The calendar calls her protomartyr, the first woman martyr, yet saint.gr says her faith brought her safely through repeated tortures: she travelled on to Myra and Seleucia and died in peace on Mount Kalamon at the age of ninety. saint.gr reads the name as theos, “God”, and kleos, “glory”. Thekla celebrates on 24 September.

Mary Magdalene, 22 July

Mary Magdalene took her name from Magdala, west of the Sea of Galilee. Christ freed her from seven demons and she became his disciple; on the morning of the Resurrection she was the first to reach the tomb with spices, and angels in white told her that he had risen. After Pentecost she served the church of Jerusalem, then joined John the Theologian in Ephesus, where she died. Magdalini celebrates on 22 July.

Nino of Georgia, 14 January

Saint Nina, as Nino is called in Greek, was born in Cappadocia; her mother Susanna was a sister of Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem. The Synaxarion tells that the Virgin appeared to her in a dream and gave her a cross of vine branches, which she bound with a lock of her own hair before setting out for Iberia, today's Georgia. Her preaching brought King Mirian and Queen Nana to the faith. Nina celebrates on 14 January.

Women of the Gospels and Acts

• [Foteini](name:foteini), [26 February](date:2-26). Saint Photini is the Samaritan woman of John 4, who met Christ at Jacob's well outside Sychar. saint.gr says she was baptised among the first women of Samaria, took the name Photini, preached in Africa and Rome and was martyred under Nero with her sons and her five sisters, two of whom were called Paraskevi and Kyriaki. Foteini also celebrates at Theophany (6 January), the feast of Lights, from which saint.gr derives the name.
• [Lydia](name:lydia), [20 May](date:5-20). Saint Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, heard Paul preach by the river outside Philippi and was baptised in its waters. For saint.gr she is the first Christian of Macedonia and the first member of the first Church of Greece.
• [Foivi](name:foivi) (Phoebe), [3 September](date:9-3). Saint Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchreae near Corinth whom Paul commends in Romans 16. saint.gr calls her the first woman named a deaconess in the New Testament and says Paul entrusted her with carrying his letter to Rome.
• [Salomi](name:salomi), [3 August](date:8-3). Salome the Myrrhbearer, wife of Zebedee and mother of two apostles; see names of the Apostles.
• [Anna](name:anna), [25 July](date:7-25). Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin, also honoured on 9 September and 9 December.

Martyrs of the first centuries

Behind several less common names stands a martyr of the Roman persecutions. saint.gr records, among others:

• [Sophia and her daughters](saint:sofia-thygateres), [17 September](date:9-17). The girls were named after the verse on faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Under Hadrian, Pisti (12), Elpida (10) and Agapi (9) were beheaded, and their mother died three days later beside their graves. The day of Sofia, Pisti, Elpida and Agapi.
• [Glykeria](saint:glykeria), [13 May](date:5-13). A consul's daughter from Trajanopolis in the 2nd century who smashed a statue of Zeus; saint.gr explains the name as “the sweet one”. Name day of Glykeria.
• [Tatiani](saint:tatiani), [12 January](date:1-12). A deaconess in Rome under Alexander Severus (222–235), beheaded after many tortures. Name day of Tatiani.
• [Agathi](saint:agathi), [5 February](date:2-5). An orphaned heiress from Palermo or Catania in Sicily who gave her fortune to the poor and died in prison in 251. Name day of Agathi.
• [Pelagia](saint:pelagia), [4 May](date:5-4). Born in Tarsus and baptised without her family's knowledge; tradition says Diocletian had her shut inside a red-hot bronze ox. The main day of Pelagia.

Nuns, ascetics and a hymnographer

• [Makrina](saint:makrina), [19 July](date:7-19). The elder sister of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, who helped bring up her brothers. When her fiancé died she withdrew with her mother Emmelia to a convent by the river Iris in Pontus. Name day of Makrina.
• [Efrosyni](saint:efrosyni), [25 September](date:9-25). The only daughter of the richest man in Alexandria around 410. To escape an arranged marriage she entered a men's monastery disguised as a man, under the name Smaragdus, and lived there for 38 years. Name day of Efrosyni.
• [Xeni](saint:xeni), [24 January](date:1-24). A Roman of the 5th century, originally named Eusebia, she fled a marriage chosen by her parents and took the name Xeni, “stranger”, so that no one could trace her; she settled at Mylasa in Caria and founded a convent. Name day of Xeni.
• [Kassiani](saint:s-0907-kassiani), [7 September](date:9-7). Born in Constantinople between 805 and 810, she took part in the bride show of the emperor Theophilus, who chose Theodora instead, and in 843 founded a convent. Her hymn on the sinful woman is sung on the evening of Holy Tuesday. Name day of Kassiani.

Empresses and later saints

• [Theodora](saint:theodora-avgousta), [11 February](date:2-11). Born in 815, she married the iconoclast emperor Theophilus but kept icons in secret. After his death in 842 she became regent, a synod restored the icons in March 843, and the celebration held on the first Sunday of Lent became the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The main name day of Theodora.
• [Filothei](saint:filothei), [19 February](date:2-19). An Athenian of the Benizelos family, born in 1522 and named Regoula. Widowed, she became a nun, founded the convent of Saint Andrew, hospitals, orphanages and schools, and died on 19 February 1589 after a beating by Ottoman Turks. Name day of Filothei.
• [Markella](saint:markella), [22 July](date:7-22). A virgin martyr of Volissos on Chios, who lived around 1500 according to her biographer, Saint Nikephoros of Chios. Name day of Markella.
• [Eirini Chrysovalantou](saint:s-0728-eirini-chrysovalantou), [28 July](date:7-28). A Cappadocian who, in the time of Empress Theodora, was travelling to Constantinople to be married when she stopped at the convent of Chrysovalantou and decided to become a nun there; she later became its abbess. The second date of Eirini.

One name, several saints

When several women saints share a name, the name gains several dates. Pelagia has three. Besides the martyr of 4 May there is Pelagia of Tinos on 23 July: a nun born in 1752, whose dreams of the Virgin in 1822 led to the finding of the island's icon on 30 January 1823; she was canonised in 1970. On 8 October comes Pelagia the Penitent of Antioch, who changed her life after a sermon by Bishop Nonnus and ended it as an ascetic in Jerusalem.

Xeni celebrates on 24 January and on 3 May, with the great martyr Xenia; Eirini on 5 May and 28 July; Lydia on 20 May and on 27 March, with a martyr Lydia, wife of the senator Philetus; and Theodora has four dates in all. How families choose between them is explained in names with several dates.

Dates follow the new calendar of the Church of Greece. On the old calendar fixed feasts fall 13 days later.