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Leaf from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial P with the Prophet Samuel; Arms of the Visconti Family and the Olivetan Order
Leaf from an Antiphonary: Historiated Initial P with the Prophet Samuel; Arms of the Visconti Family and the Olivetan Order, Olivetan Master (Italian), c. 1439–47Cleveland Museum of Art · Public domain

Saints › Orthodox

Orthodox · 11th century BC

Prophet Samuel

Commemorated: September 2 (August 20, Old Style)

Life

Samuel was the last of the judges of Israel, in the 11th century BC. The First Book of Samuel tells that his mother Hannah, long childless, prayed for a son at Shiloh and gave him to serve in the sanctuary under the priest Eli; there the boy heard himself called by name in the night. As judge and prophet he travelled a yearly circuit from his home at Ramah. When the people demanded a king, he anointed Saul and later, at Bethlehem, the young David. According to St Jerome, his relics were brought to Constantinople by Emperor Arcadius, c. 406.

Places

  • Place of birth: Ramathaim-Zophim
  • Place of death: Ramah in Benjamin

Retold briefly in our own words from: the Lives of the Saints by St Dimitry of Rostov (1902–1916); the Roman Martyrology (1916).

The commemorations of the day: Ponomar (ponomar.net), CC BY-SA 3.0.

Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.