Venerable Naum of Ohrid

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "righteous" to "venerable". CRITICALLY IMPORTANT DATE CORRECTION: the previously listed date "December 1/14" belongs to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT person — the Old Testament Prophet Nahum (a namesake) — and has nothing to do with Venerable Naum of Ohrid; it has been replaced with the correct date of his repose.

St. Naum was one of the closest disciples of Sts. Cyril and Methodius — by tradition the youngest of the group — ordained presbyter together with Clement of Ohrid during the brothers' stay in Rome (867–868). After Methodius's death in 885 he was, together with Clement, Gorazd, and others, expelled from Great Moravia amid persecution by German clergy and made his way to Bulgaria, where under Prince Boris I and later Tsar Symeon he engaged in extensive translation and manuscript work, continuing the Slavic literary-liturgical project begun by Cyril and Methodius (the transition from Glagolitic to Cyrillic). While Clement carried out episcopal duties, Naum took monastic vows around 900 and founded a monastery dedicated to Archangel Michael on the southern shore of Lake Ohrid (today's St. Naum Monastery, North Macedonia), which became a kind of training school for missionary monks. He composed liturgical texts, including a canon to the Apostle Andrew signed by acrostic.

He died in 910 and was buried in the monastery he founded; his relics became known for healings, especially of mental illness. He is venerated in Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Albania as a patron of students and teachers.

His feast is kept on December 23/January 5 (repose; Bulgarian tradition); June 20/July 3 (a transferred commemoration); and also July 27/August 9 in the Synaxis of the Seven Apostles to the Slavs (together with Cyril, Methodius, Clement, Sava, Gorazd, and Angelarius).