Saint Photini Medal Necklace – Patron Saint of Evangelists & Converts

Saint Photini, Patron Saint of Evangelists and Converts

Photini is the Eastern Christian name for the Samaritan woman at the well, the figure most people know from the Gospel of John even if they've never heard her called by name. Jesus met her at Jacob's well, and their conversation there is the longest exchange he has with anyone in the Gospels. It didn't shy away from her complicated history, she had been married five times and was living with a man she wasn't married to when Christ addressed her directly, seeing past her circumstances rather than dismissing her because of them. Rather than turning away in shame, Photini ran back to her town and told everyone what had happened, becoming, in effect, the first person in the Gospel of John to evangelize on Christ's behalf. That boldness earned her the title "Equal-to-the-Apostles" in the early Church, an honor shared with only a handful of saints. Tradition holds she went on to convert her five sisters and two sons, and was eventually brought before Emperor Nero himself, where she reportedly told him she'd come not to be converted, but to convert him. She was martyred around 66 AD after refusing to renounce her faith. Her name, Photini, means "the luminous one."

A Gift For...

• Anyone who came to faith through an honest conversation rather than a perfect past
• A convert, or someone newly returning to their faith
• A person who evangelizes, teaches, or shares their faith with others
• A confirmation candidate drawn to a saint whose boldness outweighed her circumstances

A Confirmation Gift 

For a confirmation candidate who values honesty over appearances, Photini offers a rare model, someone Christ met exactly where she was and who responded by telling everyone. Engrave a name and confirmation date, and let her boldness carry the meaning.

The Saint Photini Medal

This medal depicts her holding a water vessel, a reference to her encounter with Christ at Jacob's well, her halo radiating outward. The natural gold or silver of the metal forms the illustration itself. Black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the metal shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface. The result has a depth and precision that printed medals don't achieve.

Personalization and Engraving

The optional engraving on the reverse is rendered in Tangerine cursive, two lines, up to 20 characters each. Many choose a name and confirmation date, while others engrave "living water" or her name's meaning, "the luminous one."

Saint Photini's feast day is February 26 in the Greek Orthodox tradition (March 20 in the Slavic tradition), and nearly two thousand years later, she remains one of only a few saints in Church history given the title Equal-to-the-Apostles, an honor earned not by perfect faith from the start, but by what she did the moment she found it.