Odovania of the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God; St. Mc. Avtonom, Macedonia and Theodolustranslated

Orthodox calendar, September 12 St. Mc. Autonomous The Holy Martyr Avtonom (+ 303) lived during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305) in Rome. He was a bishop in Italy, but due to the persecution against Christians started by the emperor Diocletian, he left Italy and went to Bithynia (a historical region, then a Hellenistic kingdom in NW Asia Minor, between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Marmara), where he was received by a Christian named Cornelius.

There were many pagans in Bithynia, and Saint Avtonom, being a man full of zeal for faith in Christ, carried out a strong missionary activity, building a church here dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel. Emperor Diocletian ordered the arrest of the saint, for which the saint retreated to Claudiopolis, on the Black Sea.

After preaching the Gospel in Lykaonia and Isauria (Asia Minor) he returned to Bithynia and appointed Cornelius as bishop in his place, and he went to the city of Claudia to preach the Gospel of Christ here as well. However, Saint Avtonom was returning and serving in the Bithynian Church with Cornelius.

The pagans being disturbed by the missionary activity of Saint Avtonom, one day, on...