St. Aidan of Lindisfarne

Today is my husband's Name Day - the day when we celebrate the feast of his patron saint, Aidan of Lindisfarne.

Aidan is not his given name, but his saint's name. In Orthodox circles, particularly among converts, you will meet people living a life with two identities - their given name and a name they use at church, especially when receiving Communion. For the laity, it seems to mostly be a pious custom to take on the name of a saint whose life holds special meaning for you. For clergy, it tends to be less voluntary. When the Deac was ordained a Subdeacon back in 1996, the Bishop asked him what his saint name was going to be - he would not ordain him with his given name. My husband weighed the names of two of his favorite saints - Aidan and Polycarp. No offense to St. Polycarp (one of the first martyrs of the Church), but I think he made a good choice. He now prefers to be known as Aidan in most of the circles of his life. I think he should go about getting Aidan legally added to his name, but I don't know if he ever will.

I recently found a fun new Orthodox website - the Orthodox wikipedia. A wikipedia, or wiki, is basically an encyclopedia that can be edited and added to by anyone. In exploring the Orthodox wiki, I found a story from the life of St. Aidan that I had never heard before and immediately HAD to send it to my husband because he is a volunteer firefighter:

In 651 a pagan army attacked Bamburgh and attempted to set its walls ablaze. According to legend, Aidan prayed for the city, after which the winds turned and blew the smoke and fire toward the enemy, repulsing them.

Apparently the Deac's namesake was a firefighter of sorts, too. I'd love to have an icon written for him of the Bamburgh event.

Dear Deacon, in the transliterated words of our Romanian friends: Multi Ani Traiasca! God grant you many years!

(although I pilfered the icon image from the wikipedia site, it's the same one we have in our prayer corner at home - I'm pretty sure we found it at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA)