Among the February saints, we have:

The New Martyr Antony of Athens (5th/18th) was the son of poor Orthodox parents in Athens. At the age of twelve, he entered the service of an Albanian Muslim to help alleviate his family’s dire poverty. Later he was sold on to a Turkish master, who tried to convert him to Islam. Having failed in this endeavour, he sold him on to another master, and in fact Antony was re-sold five times. His masters all tried to convert him but he was unshaken in his refusal to deny the Saviour. At last he was bought by a Christian coppersmith in Constantinople. It would seem his troubles were over, but he was warned in a dream that God would grant him grace to obtain a martyr’s crown. One day in the street he was recognised by one of his former Muslim masters, who falsely cried out that the boy was a runaway slave and that he was an apostate from Islam. A commotion ensued, and Antony was dragged off to the judge. He told him that he, the judge, was more likely to become a Christian than he would deny Christ. He was committed to prison. While there, Antony consoled and encouraged other Christian prisoners, and gave what little money he had to the poor. He wrote to his last master thanking him for his kindness, asking forgiveness of the Christians and asking the prayers of the Church. It seems that the judge was a kindly man, or maybe he realised that the accusations against Antony were false, but in any case he delayed in sentencing the boy to death. This provoked his accusers to appeal directly to the Sultan, who ordered that the sixteen-year-old be beheaded. Antony went joyfully to his martyrdom. His executioner, to test him, struck him lightly three times, to see if the pain of the blows would induce him to recant. He did not yield and so the executioner cut his throat as one would slaughter an animal. The youth was thus perfected in martyrdom in the year 1774.

Our Venerable Mother Scholastica (10th / 23rd) is the sister of the great Saint Benedict, and it is said of her that she was in every respect her brother’s peer and fellow-worker. She took up the monastic life in her youth, and when St Benedict settled at Monte Casino, she left the community of virgins in which she had been living and settled nearby, so that she might profit from her brother’s guidance and teaching. However, St Benedict would only consent to visit her once a year, and then not in her hermitage but in a house someway between his monastery and that hermitage. Here they would engage in spiritual converse throughout the day, share a frugal meal in the evening and then part for another year. In the year 543, at the end of the day, Saint Scholastica begged Benedict to stay that they might also spend the night in spiritual converse. The great monastic father was shocked by the suggestion that he should spend the night outside his monastery and refused her request. However, Scholastica turned to the Lord in prayer with tears, and He heard her request. Such a storm arose that it was impossible for either of them or their companions to leave the house. Thus Scholastica was granted to spend longer in soul-profiting conversation with the great elder. They left the next day to return to their respective monasteries, and three days later, moved to look out of his cell window, St Benedict saw his sister’s soul ascending in the form of a dove into the heavens. Perceiving that she had received great boldness before the Lord from these occurrences, he sent monks from his brotherhood to bring his sister’s body and to lay it to rest in the grave which he had prepared for himself.

The holy Martyr Odran (19th February / 4th March) was the charioteer, who conveyed St Patrick the Enlightener of Ireland about on his missionary journeys. Odran learned once that a certain influential man bore a bitter hatred against the saint and his mission, and desired to have him murdered. Once then they were to pass this man’s estates, Odran asked Saint Patrick if for once he could ride in the chariot, while the saint ran alongside guiding the horse, as it had ever been Odran’s duty to do. The saint agreed and as their passed the house of the man who bore such hatred against St Patrick’s mission, they were set upon and the rider in the chariot was slain. They had assumed him to be the Apostle of Ireland, but it was his faithful servant, who had laid down his life to save his master. Patrick himself, raising his eyes to heaven in prayer for Odran, saw the hosts of angels bearing the soul of the Martyr into the heavenly abodes. St Odran died in 451 A.D.