The Antiochian tradition honors all the saints of the Orthodox Church, but certain saints hold special significance because they’re tied to the ancient See of Antioch and the lands of Syria, Lebanon, and the broader Levant. These are the saints who walked the streets of Antioch, preached in its marketplaces, wrote hymns in Syriac, or lived on pillars in the Syrian desert.
Start with the apostles. St. Peter served as the first bishop of Antioch before going to Rome. St. Paul launched his missionary journeys from Antioch, where believers were first called Christians. The Church of Antioch doesn’t just remember these apostles, it traces its entire existence back to their preaching in that city. When we say we’re Antiochian Orthodox, we’re claiming a direct line to Peter and Paul.
St. Ignatius of Antioch comes next. He was bishop there in the early second century and wrote seven letters on his way to martyrdom in Rome. Those letters are some of the earliest Christian documents we have outside the New Testament. He wrote about bishops, about the Eucharist, about staying united to the Church. For Antiochians, Ignatius isn’t just an ancient name. He’s proof that what we believe today is what the Church believed from the beginning.
Then there are the Syrian fathers. St. Ephrem the Syrian wrote hymns and theological poetry in the fourth century that still shape our worship. His feast day is June 9. If you’ve ever heard the Prayer of St. Ephrem during Lent (“O Lord and Master of my life”), you’ve encountered his spirituality. St. John of Damascus, born in Damascus in the seventh century, defended icons and wrote hymns we sing every Sunday. The Octoechos, the cycle of eight tones we use in our services, owes much to him.
St. Simeon Stylites lived on top of a pillar near Aleppo for nearly forty years in the fifth century. Sounds extreme, right? But pilgrims came from across the Roman Empire to ask his prayers and hear his teaching. His pillar became one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Christendom. Syrian Christianity produced this kind of radical asceticism, and we remember it.
You’ll notice certain saints show up again and again as patron saints of Antiochian parishes. St. George is everywhere. The great martyr from Cappadocia became beloved throughout the Levant, and you’ll find St. George Antiochian Orthodox churches from Boston to Los Angeles. St. Nicholas, St. Elias (the Prophet Elijah), St. Mary (the Theotokos), these are the names you see on parish signs. They reflect both universal Orthodox devotion and the particular loves of Levantine Christianity.
Some saints are less well known in the West but treasured in the Antiochian tradition. St. Thecla, an early martyr associated with St. Paul, had major pilgrimage sites in Syria. St. Romanos the Melodist wrote liturgical poetry that influenced our hymnography. Countless monks and bishops from Syrian and Lebanese monasteries are commemorated in our calendar, saints whose names might not be familiar but whose prayers and writings shaped the Church.
Why does this matter? Because the Antiochian tradition isn’t abstract. It’s rooted in specific places and specific people. When someone in Beaumont asks what makes Antiochian Orthodoxy distinctive, part of the answer is this: we remember where we came from. We remember the apostles in Antioch, the martyrs under Roman persecution, the monks in the Syrian desert, the hymnographers in Damascus. We’re not a new church or an American invention. We’re the continuation of something that started in the Book of Acts.
The liturgical calendar keeps these saints before us. We celebrate their feast days, sing their hymns, ask their prayers. Many of our parishes bear their names. When you walk into St. George or St. Elias or St. Mary, you’re walking into a living connection with the ancient Church of Antioch. That’s not nostalgia. It’s communion across time with the saints who’ve gone before us and who pray for us still.
