Sofia is a very beautiful ancient name of Greek origin. In the church tradition, it is associated with Sophia - the Wisdom of God (the meaning of the name Sophia is wisdom), as well as with a number of saints, which will be discussed below in connection with the question of determining a name day.
About Name Day
Name day is a personal holiday of a person superimposed on a church celebration in honor of one or another saint and projected by this celebration. In fact, a person’s name day is celebrated on the day when the memory of the saint is honored in the church, after which he was given a name at baptism. Thus, the name day (including Sofia) is a purely church holiday, and only those who are baptized in the Christian church have the right to celebrate it.
About choosing a name day
A person who goes to be baptized at a conscious age chooses a new name for himself. It may coincide with the name on the passport, or it may differ from it. The only requirement is that the name be numbered, that is, belong to one of the saints of the church. The chosen holy namesake becomes the patron saint of man. Of course, when a child is baptized, parents make this choice. Therefore, often when a baby grows up, he loses information about his patron and selects him again. In this case, the church is allowed to choose a holy namesake, guided simply by its preferences. If a person has difficulties with this, then they carry out a formal calendar calculation procedure, according to which the patron saint will be the one whose calendar day is closest to the person’s birthday. All this is a cost to the traditional church, in which sacraments, including baptism, are taught to almost everyone in a row according to tradition. Often, people are not believers at all, and, of course, they don’t think about choosing a patron saint. Believers, churches, take this more seriously and much more consciously.
Below we will talk about some of the saints in whose memory the name day of Sofia is celebrated. In addition to the celebration dates on the calendar, we will very briefly touch on their lives. It’s worth mentioning right away that many women glorified by the church will not be mentioned here, since there is no complete detailed list of saints.
28th of February. Reverend Martyr Sofia (Selivestrova)
Prpmchts was born. Sofia in 1871 in the Saratov province. Her mother died early, and up to 20 years, the girl was brought up in a shelter at a convent. Then she moved to St. Petersburg, where she took drawing lessons, earning a living by working as a servant. In 1989, she decided to leave for the monastery, which she did by entering the number of sisters of the Holy Monastery in Moscow. When the monastery was disbanded in 1926, she and three nuns settled in one of the basements on Tikhvinskaya Street. However, in 1938, on charges of counter-revolutionary activity, she was arrested and sentenced to death. In the same year, the sentence was carried out. Glorified in 2001. According to the church calendar, Sofia is also celebrated on January 26. This date, however, is not its resident memory, but belongs to all the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.
April 1st Princess Sofia Slutskaya
April 1 is the birthday of Sofia, named after the Princess of the same name, who was born in 1585 in the family of Slutsky Prince Yuri Yuryevich. A year after birth, she remained an orphan and formally became Princess Slutskaya. She had a reputation in life as an adversary of Uniatism and actively opposed the sermons of the supporters of Rome. She died at the age of 26 during childbirth. Sophia's daughter was also born dead. According to the church calendar, Sofia’s name days are also celebrated on June 15 on the Day of Remembrance of Belarusian Saints.
June 4th Martyr Sofia
A martyr who was a doctor during her lifetime. Sofia’s name day is celebrated by women named in her honor. However, there is nothing to say about her life, there is no data, except that for her faith she took death.
June 17. Rev. Sophia
The little-known reverend Sophia. Orthodox girls rarely celebrate a name day in her honor, because practically nothing is known about who this woman was. We only know that she was distinguished by strict asceticism and the restraint of her monastic life.
September 30th. Roman Martyr Sofia
This is perhaps the most famous of St. Sophia. Sophia, a name day, the day of an angel and simply the memory of which the whole Orthodox world respects, was the mother of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope and Love. For the confession of Christ, her daughters were executed before her eyes. She herself was saved, but three days later she died at the grave of her daughters.
October 1st. Egyptian Martyr Sofia
This woman was beheaded under Emperor Aurelian. The cause of the tragedy was the same confession of Christianity.