The earliest of the greater Hebrew prophets, and ultimately one of the Israelite "judges."  His father, Elkanah, lived in Ramah, or Ramathaim-Zophim, in Mount Ephraim (cf. 1 Sam. i. 1 with 19 and ii. 11).  Perhaps among his immediate ancestors an Ephraimite and a Levite may have intermarried (though the tribes were generally kept distinct), and Elkanah been in one sense an Ephraimite and in another a Levite.  He had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah.  Hannah, being barren, prayed earnestly to God that she might give birth to a man-child, vowing that if her prayer were answered the infant should be devoted for life to Jehovah, apparently as a Nazarite, for she added, "There shall no razor come upon his head" (cf. Numb. vi. 1-5).  Her petition was granted, the man-child to whom she gave birth was Samuel, and her vow was kept; for no sooner was the infant weaned than he was brought to the tabernacle at Shiloh, and put in charge of the high priest, Eli, to train him for his sacred duties (1 Sam. i., ii. 1-17). (Hunter)

A Samuel, native of Palestine, who perished in the persecution of Maximian, obtained a martyr's place in the calendar, and his name has been a favourite in the Eastern Church, as Samuil, Samoilo, in Russia; Schombel in Lusatia; Zomelis in Lithuania. (Yonge)

SÁMUEL.  Hungarian form of biblical Samuel, meaning "heard of God."