9 December 2025 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Our Holy father Alypius the Stylite

Born in Hadrianopolis, a city in Paphlagonia, he was from his youth dedicated to the service of God. As a deacon, he served in the church in that city with Bishop Theodore. But, desiring a solitary life of prayer and meditation, Alypius withdrew to a Greek cemetery outside the city, from which people fled as from a place of terror, as demonic visions had been seen there. Here he erected a Cross and built a church in honor of St Euphemia, who had appeared to him in a dream. Near the church, he built a high pillar, climbed up onto it and spent fifty-three years there in fasting and prayer. Neither the mockery of men nor the evil demons could drive him away or shake his purpose. This saint endured endless assaults from the demons. They not only tried to terrify him with demonic apparitions but also stoned him and gave him neither peace day nor night for a long time. But Alypius courageously defended himself against this diabolical power with the sign of the Cross and the name of Jesus. Finally, the vanquished demons left him and fled, and men began to revere him and to come to him for his prayers, comfort, teaching, and healing. Two monasteries were built beside his pillar, on one side for men and on the other for women. His mother and sisters lived in the women’s monastery. St Alypius guided the monks and nuns from his pillar by word and example, and shone like the sun in the sky for them all, showing them the way of salvation. This man of God had such grace that he was often bathed in heavenly light, and a pillar of this light stretched above him to heaven. Alypius was a great and mighty wonderworker, both in his lifetime and after his death. Living for a hundred years, he entered into rest in the year 640, in the time of Emperor Heraclius. Of his holy relics, the head is preserved in the monastery of Koutloumousiou on the Holy Mountain.

Catholic calendar

St. Peter Fourier

Founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame. A native of Mirecourt, Lorraine, France, he entered the Augustinian canons regular and received ordination in 1585. He then served as head of the deteriorated parish of Mattaincourt, striving to restore it to a flowering community. Part of his effort included establishing the Congregation of Notre Dame to educate young girls. He failed to win approval for a similar organization to teach boys but enjoyed much success with the other community. He was canonized in 1897.