This is a bit of a pet topic for me (as I bring it up every few months) - the naming of children has meaning beyond being aesthetically pleasing. I've pondered writing a short essay on the practice, but would be more happy (ecstatic) to see the Conciliar Press Topical Series booklets add a title to cover the topic. I see faithful people naming their children from books, movies, dreams, etc. giving no thought to the importance or tradition involved in picking a Christian name for their children.
(mospat.ru) - Speaking on the Church and the World talk-show, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, explained the difference between a guardian angel and a heavenly patron and the symbolism of name in Christian tradition.
‘Every Orthodox Christian has a Name Day – the commemoration day of the saint after whom he was given a Christian name. In old times, a person was given the name of the saint on whose commemoration day he was born. Accordingly, it was both his birthday and his name day. “The day of the angel” is not a church expression, but a colloquialism. Some people confuse their saints and guardian angels. A guardian angel is assigned to every person, while a saint is a heavenly patron – the person after whom a baptized Orthodox Christian was named and to whom he appeals in his prayers’, His Eminence Hilarion said.
Among the newly inchurched people there is a popular opinion that children should be baptized for a child to have a guardian angel. Metropolitan Hilarion reminded the viewers that the Lord speaks in the Gospel about non-baptized children who have angels. Therefore it can be assumed that every person has a guardian angel. ‘We know that God takes care of every person, baptized and non-baptized. Indeed if a person comes to church to be baptized it means that he has been brought in by God and that a guardian angel has been assigned to him. The sacrament of baptism is the entry to the Church. It opens up for a new Christian the life of the Church in all its fullness and gives him an opportunity to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The Name Day and veneration of saints belong to the domain of devotional traditions of the Church but has no bearing on the essence of church life’, the archpastor noted.
Asked about the reason for one to change his name in taking monastic vows, His Eminence Hilarion answered: ‘This tradition goes back to the Old Testament times. The name was a certain symbol of a person. It is not accidental that when the Lord assumed a special care of a person to make him a God-chosen one, his name was changed: Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah and so forth. The Lord Jesus Christ renamed some of His disciples: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church’ (Mt. 16:17-18). The change of one’s name means that one has entered into new relations with God. It is also linked with the old custom to change the names of slaves: one who bought a slave could give him any name since the slave was one’s property. A person who gives himself up to full obedience to God becomes God’s voluntary servant in the literal sense, because he gives himself up to be owned by God and gives Him the right to give him a new name, that is, he rejects his previous life and begins a new life in full obedience to God’.
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Then there are some of us who can't pick just one saint for our kids, so they get two names.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite know what to make of it all. My parish priest is of the view that, if a person comes to Baptism already having a Saint's name, that Saint has brough the person to that point. So I was given no opportunity to take a name. It was simply never discussed. In my case, it was further compounded by the fact that our parish, when it still operated out of a private home, would grind to a halt over the school summer holidays, and resume in September. It was shortly before that period that I asked for baptism, so I was made a catechumen on our first Sunday back, which happened to be the commemoration of the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Colossai. This was taken as a sure sign, so I was baptised Michael whether I liked it or no, and that was that.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have never had or developed any particular devotion to the Holy Archangel. My devotion is to St Cyprian of Carthage. In his writings I find beautifully forthright and often amusing answers to the questions that led me to explore Orthodoxy in the first place, and in his life I see my own cowardice in confessing the Faith in difficult situations, and the hope that I may, in the end, do as he eventually did and boldly confess the Faith, facing with Christian serenity whatever comes as a result of it.
In fact, the only actual painted icon that I have in my possession, (as opposed to a mounted print), is of St Cyprian, which was an offering from my parish priest in reparation. Personally, I'm convinced that naming adult converts against their will is part of a finely-orchestrated plan to increase the number of monastics. :-)
I am beginning to be of the opinion that one should keep their own name but attach themselves to a particular saint. It seems to me that there was once a person named "Neon" (really...) who became a saint, and no one before him was a saint. There are people named Jared and Moesha and Jamup... why can't they become saints whose names someone may take up someday?
ReplyDeleteMichael, I didn't change my name at my entrance into the Orthodox Church. I felt that I had a perfectly good saint name (I'm quite pramatic about such things). And like you, I'm not particularly attached to my patron but have found great comfort with others. I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
ReplyDeletes-p - my priest said pretty much the same thing to me once. It might be nice to get some new names into circulation.
When we converted, our then parish priest told us we should carefully choose patron saints that were important to us, and those would be our baptismal/church names (the name the deacon or priest says when we come up for Communion). My husband chose St. George, I chose Mary of Egypt. For our young children we chose for them - St. Mark the Anchorite, St. Zachariah (father of John the Baptist), and St. Non of Wales (because our daughter was born on her Old Calendar feast day and we have Welsh ancestry). When our youngest child was born, we gave her the middle name Elizabeth both because we wanted the mother of John the Baptist to be her patroness, and for family reasons. It's all worked out well. : )
ReplyDeleteAnother related topic might be the use of names taken when a person enters the Church. I have a personal preference that we actually use those names. There seems to be a common practice of people introducing themselves in an almost apologetic way, "My name is Charles but I took the name Procopius when I entered the church." You are known to God and His Church by that name, use it now because God will use it later. :)
ReplyDeleteJosephus,
ReplyDeleteIs it your opinion that converts should legally change their names? I wonder how Spyridon or would go over with my friends, family and co-workers . . .