Gennady

This name derives from the Ancient Greek “gennádas (γεννάδας) Gennádios (Γεννάδιος),” meaning “noble, generous,” and shares part of the Eugene name element “gen- ‎(γεν-) gígnomai ‎(γίγνομαι)” (to come into being, to be born, to become); thus, the name also means “of noble birth.” In fact, the Russian diminutive “Zhenya (Женя)” is shared for both “Gennadiy” and “Yevgeniy.” 1) Saint Gennadius was the twenty-first Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (458–471). Gennadius is seen to have been a learned writer and followed the School of Antioch of literal exegesis, although little writings have been left about him. He is celebrated in the Greek Orthodox Church on November 17 but is not listed in the Roman Martyrology. 2) Gennadius († 1505) was Archbishop of Novgorod the Great and Pskov from 1484 to 1504. He was most instrumental in fighting the Heresy of the Judaizers and is famous for compiling the first complete codex of the Bible in Slavic in 1499, known as the Gennady Bible. Gennady is a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.