Saint Christopher, the holy and great Martyr of Christ, was vouchsafed the crown of martyrdom during the reign of the unjust pagan Roman emperor Decius (249-251 A.D.). From his youth, the Saint had been called Reprobus. During that epoch, the rulers were possessed by a frenzied madness against the pious Christians. The lawless emperor had issued an outrageous decree. His foul command urged the ill use of the righteous and godly slaves of the Christians, with the application of violence, if they could not be coerced into eating meats offered and sacrificed to idols.

Saint John the Theologian, the divine Apostle and Evangelist, the beloved Disciple of the Lord, was born in Bethsaida of the Galilee. He was translated to the Lord, while preaching the word of God at Ephesus, in deep old age during the days of Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.). When the blessed John was about to depart from this present life, to what which is perpetual and eternal, he foreknew it by the indwelling of divine grace.

The sign of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross appeared in the sky over Jerusalem during the day of Emperor Constantius (337-361 A.D.), the son of Saint Constantine the Great. The apparition took place during the episcopacy of the holy Patriarch Kyril of Jerusalem. Throughout the days of the Pentecost, the Honorable sign of the Cross, filled with Divine Light, was made manifest over Jerusalem.

Job, the righteous and wise man, was living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia. He was the grandson of Esau and fifth from Abraham. In the Old Testament book of his name, we learn how he loses wealth, large family of ten children, and health. Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740) writes: "Once Job sat upon a throne, but now he sits upon a dunghill, naked and covered with sores (Job 2:7-8). Once he was blessed with many children and admired by all, but suddenly he is childless and homeless. Yet he counted the dunghill as a palace and his sores as pearls. The book records a number of debates, an extraterrestrial one between God and Satan, and an earthly one between Job and three of his acquaintances (Eliphaz the king of the Minaeans).

Saint Irene, the holy Great-Martyr, was born in the city of Magedon or Magedo. She lived during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great (306-337 A.D.). She was the sole offspring of her pagan parents, Licinius, who was a certain kinglet, and Licinia. Irene had been given the name of Penelope at birth. Since she was the fairest of maidens and surpassed in beauty all the other of the day, her father, who feared for his daughter, built a lofty tower to isolate Penelope. He also lodged thirteen other young maidens with her, amid whom she lived in luxury and wealth. She received such items as a throne, a table, and a lamp made of solid gold. She was six years of age when her father confined her to the tower. He also assigned a certain elderly Apellianos to supervise his sheltered little daughter's education.