The Three Holy Hierarchs: the feast of 30 January and its names

On 30 January the Orthodox Church honours together three bishops of the fourth century: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. The feast is the Synaxis of the Three Holy Hierarchs (Treis Ierarches), and in Greece it is also the feast of letters and education. Each of the three, however, has a day of his own in the calendar, and that is where most of the names linked to them are celebrated.

Three saints, three dates of their own

Basil the Great: 1 January

According to saint.gr, Basil was born in 329 or 330. It gives Neocaesarea in Pontus as his birthplace, while encyclopaedias name Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he grew up. He came from a family of saints: his brothers Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste also became bishops, and his eldest sister, Macrina, became a nun.

He studied in Caesarea, Constantinople and Athens, lived for five years as a monk in Pontus and became Bishop of Caesarea in 370. He stood firm against Arianism and against the pressure of Emperor Valens, and built the “Basiliad”, a complex with a poorhouse, an orphanage, an old people's home, a hostel and a hospital. He died on 1 January 378 or, according to other sources, in 379 or 380.

The day of his death is the name day of Vasilis (Vasileios, Basil) and Vasiliki, on 1 January. saint.gr's note on the name links it to basileus, “king”. The New Year customs around his feast are described in the guide to the Twelve Days.

Gregory the Theologian: 25 January

Gregory was born in 329 at Arianzos in Cappadocia, the son of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, and of Saint Nonna. He met Basil as a fellow pupil at Caesarea, and his studies, in Caesarea, Palestine, Alexandria and Athens, lasted thirteen years.

In 378 he came to Constantinople, where every church was in Arian hands. He turned a room of the house where he was staying into a chapel, named it Anastasia (“Resurrection”), and there gave the five theological orations to which he owes the title “the Theologian”. In 381 he became Patriarch of Constantinople and presided over the Second Ecumenical Council, but he resigned when a group of bishops turned against him, and died at Arianzos in 390. He also left 408 poems, some 18,000 lines in all. His skull is kept at Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos.

Grigoris (Grigorios, Gregory) and Grigoria celebrate on 25 January. According to saint.gr the name comes from the verb grigoro, “to be awake, watchful”.

John Chrysostom: 13 November

John was born in Antioch in 347 (354, according to others). His father, the general Secundus, died early, and he was raised by his mother Anthousa, a widow at twenty. He studied under the famous rhetorician Libanius, spent five years as an ascetic in the desert, and was ordained deacon in 381 and later priest in Antioch, where his preaching moved the crowds.

In December 397 he was chosen as Patriarch of Constantinople; about 804 of his homilies survive. Because he denounced every injustice he made powerful enemies, Empress Eudoxia among them: he was deposed by a synod at “the Oak” near Chalcedon, recalled, exiled again in 404, and died at Comana in 407.

As saint.gr points out, he died on 14 September, but because that is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, his memory was moved to 13 November. The Church also remembers his consecration as patriarch on 15 December, the translation of his relics on 27 January and his ordination to the priesthood on 26 February. Chrysostomos, a name taken from his epithet, “golden-mouthed”, celebrates on 13 November and on 27 January.

How a quarrel created the feast

The shared feast grew out of a dispute. According to saint.gr, in the Constantinople of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) learned men argued over which of the three was the greatest, and the faithful split into “Basilians”, “Gregorians” and “Johannites”.

The quarrel was settled by John Mauropous, Metropolitan of Euchaita. As the Synaxarion tells it, the three hierarchs appeared to him in a vision, first one at a time and then together. They told him that they were one before God, that there was no first or second among them, and that he should appoint a day for their common memory. John reconciled the factions, established the feast of 30 January and composed a common service for it.

The sources disagree on the date: OrthodoxWiki puts the vision in 1084, while sansimera.gr places the introduction of the feast in the mid-11th century, under Constantine IX Monomachos. saint.gr adds that early in the 14th century a church of the Three Hierarchs was built near Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Why it is the feast of letters

Outside church, 30 January is known in Greece as the feast of Greek letters. According to sansimera.gr, its educational character was set by the academic council of the Othonian University, today's National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, on 9 August 1841. The feast was first celebrated in this way on 30 January 1842, and over the following years it spread to every level of education.

The reason given is that the Three Hierarchs advanced Christian teaching while cultivating ancient Greek learning at the same time, which is why Greece honours them as patrons of education and letters. Their lives show why:

• Basil spent four years in Athens studying philosophy, rhetoric, grammar, astronomy and medicine, with Gregory and the future emperor Julian the Apostate as fellow students, and then taught rhetoric in Caesarea.
• Gregory was offered a professor's chair when he finished his studies, and turned it down to go home.
• John was a pupil of Libanius. The Synaxarion of M. I. Galanos, quoted on saint.gr, says that no one explained the Scriptures as richly and as clearly as he did.

Two liturgies that bear their names

The Hierarchs are heard in church every week. The Divine Liturgy celebrated on almost every Sunday is the work of John Chrysostom, with only a few changes since. The longer Liturgy of Saint Basil, once the shorter one of Chrysostom had prevailed, is celebrated, according to saint.gr, ten times a year:

• on 1 January, his own feast;
• on the first five Sundays of Lent;
• on the eves of Christmas and Epiphany;
• on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday.

Which names celebrate on 30 January?

Since each Hierarch has his own day, Vasilis, Grigoris and Chrysostomos do not usually celebrate on 30 January. In the calendar the day belongs to other names:

• [Archontoula](name:archontoula) (Archontia) celebrates on the feast of the Three Hierarchs by custom.
• [Chrysavgi](name:chrysavgi) celebrates the same day with the martyr Saint Chryse, who is also commemorated on 30 January; for Chrysi and Chrysoula it is a second name day. These names have nothing to do with Chrysostomos, even though they share the root chrysos, “gold”.

Nor is Giannis a name of this feast: Giannis (Ioannis, John) and Ioanna celebrate mainly on 7 January, the Synaxis of John the Baptist, not on the days of John Chrysostom.

January, the month of the Hierarchs

Put side by side, the dates make January the month of the three teachers and their family:

• 1 January: Basil the Great; Vasilis and Vasiliki.
• 10 January: Gregory of Nyssa, Basil's younger brother.
• 25 January: Gregory the Theologian; Grigoris and Grigoria.
• 27 January: the translation of the relics of John Chrysostom; Chrysostomos.
• 30 January: the Three Hierarchs together; Archontoula.

For names with two or more dates, such as Chrysostomos, see the guide to names with more than one name day.

Communities that keep the old calendar celebrate the Three Hierarchs 13 days later, on 12 February of the civil calendar. See the guide to the old and new calendar.