Which date to celebrate
a saint of recent repose?
 

Just a little background about the calendar reform. In 1923, the Ecumenical Patriarch held a congress to revise the Church's liturgical calendar, which settled on a compromised New Revised Julian Calendar, where feastdays revolving around Pascha will continue to be calculated according the old Julian Calendar.

In practice, Pascha and all feasts revolving around it, eg Ascension, Pentecost are observed on the same actual date no matter if a church uses the Old or New Calendar. This allows for the observance of the Resurrection with unity among all Orthodox Churches, but different on the majority of the time with the Catholics and Protestants.

In order to bridge the gap with the Catholics and Protestants, the calendar reform also agreed to have all fixed feastdays that were according to the Julian calendar to switch over to be according to the Gregorian calendar without time adjustment. So the Nativity of Christ which was originally observed on December 25 on Julian Calendar and having by 1923 lagged for 13 days, will henceforth be observed on December 25 on the Gregorian Calendar without adjustment. This creates calendar unity with the Catholics, Protestants and the rest of the western secular world, but it creates disunity with those among the Orthodox Churches who still held to the Old Calendar like in Russia, Serbia and Jerusalem where December 25 Julian is celebrated 13 days later on January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar.

Now let us take the example of the repose date of St John Maximovich who was Archbishop of Shanghai and later of San Francisco under the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR), which uses the Old Calendar. He died after the Calendar Reform of 1923, specifically on July 2, 1966 on the Gregorian calendar. ROCOR designated the Saturday closest to his repose date of June 19 according to the Julian calendar as his feast day, where according to the Old Calendar usage is currently the same as July 2 on the Gregorian calendar. If he would have been reposed or glorified before 1923, then New Calendar churches would have commemorated him on June 19 on the Gregorian calendar without adding 13 days. Since the Julian calendar only lags an additional day with the Gregorian calendar after about every 131 years, in all practicality both the Old and New Calendar churches during our century observes St John's feastday on the same actual day, i.e. July 2 on the Gregorian calendar.

Thus, any newly canonized saints reposed or glorified after 1923 would be observed on the same actual date no matter Old or New Calendar, unless officially promulgated otherwise. Some Orthodox Calendar publishing companies may unintentionally put St John on June 19 on the new calendar based on the assumption that any fixed feasts are carried over from Julian date to Gregorian date without adding 13 days.

Calendar of Saints of recent repose or glorification

FeastYear of ReposeJulian (OC)Gregorian (NC)
St Silouan, elder of Mt Athos 1938 Sep 11 Sep 24
St Jonah, Bishop of Hankou and Manzhouli 1925 Oct 7 Oct 20
St John Kochurov of Chicago 1917 Oct 31 Nov 13
St Alexander Hotovitzky fall of 1945 December 4 (glorification)
Hieromartyr Isaac II (Bobrikov, the Younger), archimandrite of Optina 1936/37 Dec 26 Jan 8
Aug 7, 2000 (glorification)
Confessor Dositej (Vasić), Metropolitan of Zagreb 1944/45 Dec 31 Jan 13
St Raphael (Hawaweeny) of Brooklyn, NY, USA 1915 Feb 14 Feb 27 repose (OCA);
first Saturday in Nov (Antiochian)
St Seraphim of Vyritsa1949Mar 21Apr 3
St Savvas the New of Kalymnos1948Mar 25Apr 7
Blessed Justin (Popović) of Chelije in Serbia1979Mar 25Apr 7
St Tikhon of Moscow 1925 Mar 25 Apr 7
St Nicholas (Planas), priest in Athens 1932 Feb 18 Mar 2 (Greece)
Mar 3
St Nikolai (Velimirović), Bishop of Ohrid and Zica, Serbia 1956 Mar 5 repose;
Apr 20 trans of relics
Mar 18 repose;
May 3 trans of relics
Hieromartyr Platon (Jovanović), Bishop of Banja Luka 1941 Apr 22 May 5
St Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA 1909 Apr 24 May 7
Hieromartyr Branko Dobrosavljevic 1942 Apr 24 May 7
Hieromartyr Petar (Zimonjić), Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia 1941 May 2 May 15
Martyr Vukasin from the Village of Klepci 1943 May 3 May 16
Hieromartyr Joanikije (Lipovac), Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral 1945 Jun 4 Jun 17
Hieromartyr Georgije - Djordje Bogić, Parish Priest of Nasice 1941 Jun 5 Jun 18
St John (Maximovich), Wonderworker of Shanghai & San Francisco 1966 Jun 19 repose;
closest Saturday to Jun 19 (ROCOR)
July 2
Hieromartyr Sava (Trlajić), Bishop of Gornji Karlovac 1941 mid-Aug
Hieromartyr Rafailo (Momcilovic), Abbot of the Sisatovac Monastery 1941 Aug 21 Sep 3
Holy New Martyr Gorazd, Bishop of Slovakia and the Czech Lands 1942 Aug 22 Sep 4
St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia 1914 Jul 24 repose;
Aug 24 glorification
Aug 6 repose;
Sep 6 glorification
St John (Iacob) the Romanian, of Khozeva 1960 Aug 5 Aug 18