Saint George Karslides and his Wondrous Meeting With the Three Hierarchs

 By Monk Moses the Athonite

When Saint George Karslides was a young child, he met in a wondrous vision the Three Hierarchs - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. This is how he described it to his spiritual children many years later:

I was home alone, in my brother's house, after my parents died.

A beggar came that day, I took a plate, I went to the barn, I took some flour and I gave it to him.

Holy New Hieromartyr Haralambos Michailides of Louroujina in Cyprus (+ 1924)

St. Haralambos of Louroujina (Feast Day - September 24)

The difficult living conditions of the years of Ottoman rule contributed to the fact that many Greek residents of Cyprus converted to Islam in order to survive. In many cases this accession was fictitious and the neophyte Muslims, while declaring publicly faith in Muhammad, secretly remained Christians.

Unfortunately, over time the descendants of many of the Islamized were Turkified and lost permanently their Hellenism. However, many Linobambaki Christians, as the Crypto-Christians were called in Cyprus, resembling a fabric that has two sides, one of linen and one of cotton, continued to experience the tragic situations created by their dual religious status, until the first years of British rule, when the free exercise of the religious rights of the inhabitants was allowed and many identified themselves as Christians. Faced with this development, the Turkish minority of the island reacted and sought to assimilate the Linobambaki by establishing schools and building mosques in the Crypto-Christian villages.

Last year the Mayor of the Kahramanmaraş province in Turkey, Hayrettin Güngör, was caught on camera telling a woman from Trabzon, "We made you Muslim." Although he later apologized, it highlighted one of Turkey's best-kept secrets: Islamized Christians.

The Four Holy New Martyrs of Rethymno (+ 1824)

Four Neomartyrs of Rethymnon (Feast Day - October 28)

Angelis and his brother Manuel, the sons of John Tetzepes, were well off married men with children who lived in the town of Melampes, near Rethymno, Crete. Their cousins George and Nicholas, sons of Constantine Tetzepes, also lived there and were well off married men with children as well. All four were farmers. As the island was under Turkish occupation, the four young men were Cryptochristians, like many of their fellow countrymen. Officially they had Turkish names and ostensibly conformed to Islamic customs but, in reality, they remained faithful to all the traditions of the holy Orthodox Church. They fought valiantly in the Greek War of Independence from 1821 to 1824 and, when the Turks recaptured Crete with the help of Egyptian troops, they were no longer afraid to declare their faith.

Holy New Martyr Matthew of Gerakari (+ 1697)

St. Matthew the Neomartyr (Feast Day - August 18)

Verses

Matthew's head was cut off with a sword,

Rejoicing he entered into the fold of Athletes.

On the eighteenth Matthew's head was cut off.

Matthew was born in 1670 in Gerakari in the Amari valley of Crete which is in the Diocese of Lambis and Sfakion. Crete at that time was enslaved to the Turkish conquerors, who persecuted and tortured Christians. The father of Matthew was a priest, and this helped bring him up with Christian values and virtues.

This was the cause for the envious devil, who hated the virtues of Matthew, to lead him to impiety. Hence the Muslims chose him to marry the Ottoman Ayse to embrace Islam.

The Miraculous Holy Water and Holy Fish of the Archangel Michael in Sebastea, Turkey

By Nikos Chiladakis

In central Asia Minor in the region of Sebastea which was called Divrigi there was a large a population of Christians that settled around the great religious center and majestic Church of the Archangel Michael, famous and known for its therapeutic holy water.

A Mysterious Mass Conversion From Islam to Christianity in Georgia

The Church of Saint Nicholas in Batumi

Ian Hamel

September 15, 2013

Oumma.com

In 1991, 75% of Adjarians in Georgia were Muslims. Today, they have become 75% Orthodox Christians. How can these conversions be explained, which is apparently unique in the world?

"What time do services begin at Saint Nicholas in Batumi on Sunday morning?" The question embarrasses the employee of the President Plaza, one of the largest institutions in the city, a seat of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the Iranian consulate. It is true that in this province of Georgia, washed by the Black Sea, the population speaks little English. All signs, such as signs in the streets, are in Georgian or Russian. The employee eventually suggests joining the Church of Saint Nicholas at 9:00 AM. In fact, the Service works strangely like a self-service. The faithful men, women (head always covered) and children come and go as they please, after long embracing of the icons and after they have crossed themselves multiple times.

This curious to and fro takes most of the morning. The priest can hardly talk to us, since he speaks only Russian and Georgian. A female student, smiling, who graduated in the language of Shakespeare, came to our rescue. We ask her the question: "How is it that the majority of the inhabitants of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia, have in two decades abandoned Islam for Orthodoxy?" The girl apologizes, caught unaware, and prefers to dodge quickly.

Ottoman and Russian province

But the facts are there, Adjara, conquered by the Ottomans in the seventeenth century, becomes overwhelmingly Muslim. In 1878, this province of 3000 km2 falls into the lap of the Russian Empire. In 1991, after the fall of communism and the independence of Georgia, Adjara seceded. Until 2004, this "independent" Republic is ruled by a dictator, a Muslim, Aslan Abashidze, now on the run. Since then Adjara (400,000) has returned to the bosom of Georgia.

According to official documents, in 1991, 75% of Adjarians were Muslims. They are now 75% Orthodox. How can this mass conversion be explained? In a long interview published in December 2012, Metropolitan Dimitri of Batumi (the capital of Adjara), also nephew of Ilia II, Patriarch of Georgia, says he was appointed parish priest of St. Nicholas in Batumi in 1986. At that time, there was only one Orthodox church in Batumi.

The Great Mosque in Batumi

"It is God's will"

Dimitri states that "the metamorphosis of an entire region, this conversion from Islam to Orthodoxy, or rather the return to basics, to the faith of their ancestors," took place before his eyes. On 13 May 1991 "5000 Muslims and atheists became Orthodox. The same year the Church opened a school in Khulo, an ecclesiastical high school named Saint Andrew, the first religious high school in the USSR." The Metropolitan of Batumi says that Adjarians were forcibly converted to Islam by the Ottomans though, in fact, they remained Christian at heart. According to his statement, they continued to secretly wear a cross, they painted Easter eggs, and they retained the icons in their homes.

Dimitri adds that many priests come from Muslim families. The rector of the seminary is the grandson of a mullah, formed in Istanbul. How can one explain the conversions brought forward on the website Provoslavie i mir (Orthodoxy and the World): "It is God's will. It is a miracle of God, for unexplained reasons that could not have been predicted," says Dimitri.

Missionaries from Turkey

The Great Mosque of Batumi is a few blocks from the Church of Saint Nicholas, near the port. First observation: it is actually a lot less crowded than the Orthodox place of worship. Nevertheless, some local publications were denouncing a "return to Islam supported by Turkey." But during our stay in Adjara, we have not seen this "Islamic Turkish fairly consistent presence" due to "the influx of missionaries," including disciples of the Turkish preacher Süleyman Hilmi Tunahan.

The Sarpi border entrance with Turkey is only twenty kilometers from Batumi. If the capital of Adjara became overwhelmingly Christian, however, the small villages in the mountains of Adjara have not yet denied the Prophet. The village of Khulo, more than two hours away from the Black Sea, has a mosque and a madrasa. We were told that some seniors continue to speak Turkish, but we cannot verify it.

Peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians in Batumi

A national  and Orthodox state

For the visitor from the outside, the two religions appear to coexist smoothly. The Adjarians tell you without hesitation directions to the church or the nearest mosque. Nobody mentions any persecution vis-à-vis minority religions. However, these mass conversions remain taboo. Especially as the other Muslims of Georgia (about 10% of the population) do not seem to adopt Orthodoxy as quickly. Including Kistins, ethnic Chechens near the border with Chechnya and Dagestan, and Shiites in eastern Georgia, neighboring Azerbaijan.

"We must understand that the Orthodox Church is a fundamental pillar of our national identity. In the past, we have been invaded by all our great neighbors, the Persians, the Ottomans, the Russians. If there had not been the cement of religion, there would be no longer any people of Georgia," said Alina Okkropiridze, former journalist and translator. After seventy years of state atheism, at the time of the USSR, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first Georgian president, wanted to create a "national and Orthodox" state. His successor, Eduard Shevardnadze, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, took care "to announce his conversion to Orthodoxy, to be baptized and to choose as his spiritual director Patriarch Ilia II, the head of the Georgian Church since 1977," says the Swiss website Religioscope.

Batumi, the city of the future

Dismantling of a minaret

Clearly, over the last two decades, the powers, the media, and nationalist parties have have constantly repeated that a true Georgian must foremost be Orthodox. Is it enough to explain, as stated by Metropolitan Dimitri, "the return to the faith of their ancestors" of the Adjarians? At the end of August, in the district of Adiguéni, in southwest Georgia, the authorities dismantled a minaret on the grounds that customs duties were not paid for construction materials. Muslims who opposed the destruction of the building were arrested. "A very 'unrthodox' way to act that just aims for the exile of the Muslim people," complains one local site in an article titled "Georgia: the minaret of discord."

Translated by John Sanidopoulos. 

Read also:

Islam and Religious Transformation in Adjara

Religious Crossings and Conversions on the Muslim-Christian Frontier in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan

An Interview With Metropolitan Dimitri of Batumi and Lazeti

Turkish Media Revealing Great National Interest in Orthodox Christianity

THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL HAS BEEN GLEANED FROM THE MASS MEDIA OF TURKEY

The Turks say to Greek visitors: “This land is your land.” The fanaticism of the Islamists in Turkey does not allow discussion about religion. But that which it has not succeeded with zembekika and relationships is being affected by the Orthodox Church, since it has become very evident amongst many Turks that their religious roots are based on Orthodox Christianity. This is a reality even though a few Seljuk Turks changed the ethno-religious character of millions of Greeks in Asia Minor, Thrace, Pontus and other places of Turkey when they were forced to accept Islam. Many accepted Islam superficially to save their necks; today Orthodox religiosity is being expressed by their descendants. The cryptochristians make up for the Patriarchate of Constantinople a hidden flock of tragic victims of an autocratic rule of many centuries. These people live everywhere in Turkey, especially in the Pontus area where there are possibly two million of them. Remote churches are functioning again and they are being filled by cryptochristians who receive communion reverently and they fast even from olive oil for five days every week during Great Lent. Graffiti is being written on the walls of the City by young people who say: “We do not want to be Muslims anymore. We want to become Christians.” The Turks say to visiting Greeks: “This land is your land.” Even the guards at museums tell the Greeks not to pay entrance fees because “these museums belong to you.”

The Turks do not consider it a blessing from God that they unjustly stole the land from the Romans (Greeks) and banished them from it. They consider this injustice the reason for their not being able to progress as a people. They understand that they live in a land where all things are Hellenic: the history, the monuments, the cities, the civilization and the most significant of all, they believe that Greek blood flows in their veins. The circumstances that lead to this understanding are many. 

In the Church of the Holy Trinity at an intersection in Constantinople, Father Dositheos encounters a young Turkish girl who makes an offering to his church, lights a candle, reverences an icon and then explains to the priest why she did this: “I am fond of what you people do.” Every Friday when the Monastery of the Transfiguration has services, it is filled with many Turks. On the Island of Antigoni, the Turks honor Saint George by giving gifts to the Monastery of olive oil, candles, and money in thanksgiving for the many miracles that the Saint performs. Many Turks virtually stream to one of the forty holy places of the City, one of them in Baloukli, seeking help for the many problems that afflict their lives. For example, on the first day of every month at the Church of the Holy Mother in Befa, hundreds of Turks come to get Holy Water. And on New Year’s Day, this Church is overwhelmed with thousands of worshipers. Every Monday near Hagia Sophia, at the Church of Saint Therapon, a priest continuously reads prayers for Muslims who wish to confess. The Shrine at the cave of Saint Demetrios is filled with crutches and offerings from Turks who have been healed. They attend church services, they ask to receive Holy Communion, they venerate the Cross, and they thank the priest for blessing their sick child. They especially love Saint Nicholas. Of special interest is that a Turkish woman has kept the votive light burning in the Church of the Archangels in Moshoshoninon for fifty years.

The Turkish paper Sampah writes: “The reopening of the Patriarchal School of Halki is a request that is very logical.” The author of the article Tsanar supports the title ecumenical for the Patriarchate which was promulgated at the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 451 AD. Mr. G. Tzibaoglou writes that the hanging of the Patriarch Gregory V was a fatal mistake. A Turkish bank published a magazine about the Byzantine Empire which contains a message of Saint Basil to the youth. The Turkish Academy of Scientists organized a conference on the world of the Byzantine Empire. The Orthodox churches in Turkey do not pay for electricity as they do in Greece. The churches are exempt. Turkish sources in a study prepared by N. Hiladakis reveals that there is a Monastery of the Pantocrator (Christ the Ruler of All), where the tombs of the Emperors of the Komnenion and the Palaeologian dynasties are located. This area is known as Fatih and it is a center of Muslim fanaticism. It is an area where many Turks light candles and toss money into a tomb in spite of a posted sign that strictly forbids Muslims from doing this.

In this same area there was a Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles. A mosque was built upon the ruins of this church and following a number of renovations, the tomb of Mohammad the Conqueror was opened. This Mohammad had a Christian mother. It was also determined that there is a trap door that leads to an underground room of the old church. This indicates that Mohammad had been buried in an Orthodox Church amongst Byzantine Emperors. There are witnesses that say that at the end of his life, Mohammed had embraced Christianity and that next to his grave were found a Cross and an icon of the Holy Mother. The Church of Hagia Irene which is next to Hagia Sophia was never turned into a mosque. Mohammed allowed it to function as a Christian Church in honor of his Christian mother. All of these issues, at certain times, occupy the Turkish mass media. The periodical Aktoul printed by the newspaper Sampah headlined in one of its issues: “Mohammed the Conqueror was a Christian.” The Weekly Turkish Review of events says: “They are returning to their religious roots.” It also reports that in three years eight million copies of the Gospels were distributed in the Turkish language. It also reported that many Muslims are openly being baptized. These are descendents of Islamized Christians of Greek origin who uncover their Christian roots.

The paper Sampah headlines: “The Church of the Panagia in Constantinople is the last hope for the Turks.” They characterize it as "The Door of Hope, a place of pilgrimage and a place of prayer for the problems that afflict the Turks.” On the first day of every month the Turks gather at this church in great numbers. The fame of the Holy Mother has spread everywhere amongst the Turks and even well-known Turks come to light candles and kiss the hand of an Orthodox priest. They proclaim that is where the House of God is and that is why so many miracles are happening there.

At the Church of the Archangel Michael in Sebastea, it is written in the annals of the lives of the Saints that little fish that swam in the Holy Water used to lick the bodies of the sick and they were miraculously cured. This Church was destroyed in the fifteenth century but today the Holy Water is still there and continues to heal people. This phenomenon attracts many Europeans. The newspaper Star writes: “Turkish girls with head scarves attend the churches, light candles, and make offerings. They even ask for a blessing from the astonished priest. They venerate the icons and ask for the intercessions of the Saints.” All of these things are forbidden by the teachings of Islam. It is observed that there is a return to the Greek Orthodox churches and the holy shrines where the Turks find spiritual refuge. The newspaper Miliet reports that a Turkish mayor celebrated piously the memory of Saint Nektarios in Silyvria along with many Muslims.

During the last few years, the celebration of the Feast of Epiphany has been allowed by the Turkish authorities. The blessing of the waters takes place at the Bosporus and the Cross is thrown into the waters. The Turks are very happy about this happening again because the fishermen thought their catches of fish had become poor because the Romans (Greeks) were no longer throwing the Cross into the Bosporus during the Feast of Epiphany. The Turkish newspapers reported that during this feast a young Turkish girl jumped into the water with all her cloths on in order to retrieve the Cross. She did this with the Christians. She reported to the newspaper that she wanted to honor the feast of the Romans (Greeks) and that she would do it again to receive a blessing. The newspaper Huriyet, a paper with the largest circulation in Turkey, published a few years ago that a Turkish candidate for mayor, who was the leader of an Islamic party, asked for a blessing from the Orthodox Patriarch. He did this while being in attendance at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Annunciation on the 25th of March. He spoke publicly to the Turkish press about the holiness of the leader of the Orthodox Church and he offered him a rose.

Turkish TV channels regularly show programs about the monastic community of Meteora in Greece, Mistra, Orthodox chanting, and the lives of the Saints etc. They present Turkish iconographers and they report that pilgrims flock to an ancient Christian catacomb outside of Ankara believing that their lives will be blessed by their pilgrimage. They light candles in the area where the Christians used to gather. Outside of Adana, in a catacomb where seven Christians were sanctified, young Turks gather to incense the area. This again is strictly forbidden by Islam. These people believe these areas are holy because many miracles happen there. In Tarsus, the Church of the Apostle Paul has become a place of pilgrimage. Here people light candles, kiss the icons, and drink Holy Water for their health and well-being. They consider all these things to be holy. On the 24th of September, on Princess Island, the people honor Saint George. Tens of thousands of pilgrims come from all parts of Turkey including old people. They walk barefooted from the shore where they land and continue up to the top of the hill where the Church is located. There they join in a festival that is like no other. They make offerings, they tie sweet cookies on the trees, and they wait in endless lines for five hours in order to receive some Holy Water and to have an Orthodox priest bless them with a Cross. They light candles; they embrace the icons believing in the power of the Cross. The Turks even write literary pieces which say: “Constantinople was your name, with your pious people, with your churches, with your monasteries, with your shrines, with your icons, with your monks and angels. You were the capital of an Empire. Constantinople is your name.”

The author of this article says: “Pay attention to what is happening here in Turkey. Let those in Greece who war against the Church take notice."

Source: From the Lesvian newspaper Δημοκράτης December 25, 2008. Translated by Fr. Constantine J. Simones.

Fascinating Research on Orthodox Christianity in Turkey Today

With literally bated breath we attended the public lecture of Journalist Nikos Chiladakis, that was held in the Municipality of Thermi and broadcast on the television station 4e of the Metropolis of Thessaloniki on Orthodoxy in Turkey today.

The Journalist, with extensive research and absolute evidence, many of which were reported about in the Turkish press, even on broadcasts of Turkish television, revealed another entirely unknown and buried aspect of reality in today's Turkey, in which dozens, even hundreds, are now openly baptized Orthodox Christians, and thousands are those who go to Orthodox shrines, churches and places of sanctification, while eminent Turks follow with awe the Divine Liturgy!

"Best Seller": The Gospels

Nikos Chiladakis mentioned numerous and specific cases of Muslims who asked to be baptized Christians, and presented the research data revealed in a Turkish newspaper, which records that only in the last three years in Turkey an outrageous number, eight million, of the published Holy Scriptures in Turkish have been sold! (Editors note: This indicates that there are really many millions of cryptochristians in Turkey. According to St. Kosmas Aitolos, a "third of Turks will become Christians", and based on the current population, it seems this could be 15-20 million souls!).

Saint George Koudounas

Mr. Chiladakis also presented the irrefutable video from Turkish channels, of literally thousands of Turkish 'Muslims', that inundate the Church of St. George of the Bell, leaving offerings, venerating the holy icons and wait in endless lines to be blessed with the oil from the vigil lamp of the Saint!

The Power of the Catacombs

Another great event is what takes place near Adana where, as Nikos Chiladakis said, hundreds of ill Turks gather to become well by a woman who confessed on Turkish television that her miraculous power has its source in a catacomb-cave where seven Christian martyrs were sanctified.

The Holy Water of the Archangel Michael

The most striking of all, however, is what the eminent Journalist said about Sebastea. Beginning with the Synaxarion of the Archangel Michael, in which is described the healing of a rich man at the Holy Water of the Archangel Michael in Sebastea.

There, at that miraculous Holy Water, a sacred church had been built, an architectural marvel, but it no longer exists.

But the Holy Water of the Archangel is still there, filled with hundreds of small fish, which lick the wounds of the diseased at the spot of the ailment, and tens of thousands of Turks, who go there from throughout the world, are healed, after entering into the Holy Water!

The Turks have even built hotels and rooms to take advantage of this "therapeutic" tourist spot, many of whom even come from Russia!

A Message Not Received

However, the conclusion of Nikos Chiladakis was equally exciting, when he revealed that although he has worked for major newspapers for many years, no newspaper and no means of information until now has accepted his research within Greece to view this shocking material about Orthodoxy in Turkey! (Editor's note: With the exception of 4e).

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Alevis Feel Closer To Orthodox Christianity Than To Islam

By Nikos Chiladakis 

(Journalist - Writer - Turkish Expert)

The revelatory view that Alevis in Turkey are closer to Christianity than to Islam is made by Sevılay Yükselir, who is a journalist and columnist of the known Turkish newspaper Sabah (haber3 16/7/2013). This invites once again a debate on the genuine religious identity of the Alevis who consider themselves descendants of the Christians of Asia Minor. This is an issue that occasionally occupies strongly Turkish affairs with clear disruptive trends for Turkey itself.

But the most important revelation of the Turkish columnist is that some time ago in Germany, where large communities of Turkish Alevis lived, they founded an Institution of Alevis with the very characteristic title: "Hıristiyan Alevilik Arkadaşlik Birliği" which means "Union of Christian Alevis Brotherhood". The title of this Institute shows in a most indicative and revealing way that Alevis do not feel themselves to be Muslims, but are much closer to the Christian religion. Sevılay Yükselir notes that this Institute was created to show that Alevis have more in common with Christianity (and of course the Orthodox from whom they originated) than Islam. Indeed the "Union of Christian Alevis Brotherhood" has asked for the support of the Christian Democratic Party of Germany, realizing that they will face the wrath of the Islamic Turks of the current Prime Minister Erdogan, who only by his words wants to show that he is a classic Democrat.

The issue of Alevis in Turkey came in the news again with the recent events of Gazipark and the demonstrations that have upset the neighboring country, and in many cases leading Alevis to consider themselves persecuted by the Islamic government of Erdogan. Alongside the policy of Erdogan, the civil war in Syria was another cause of Alevis uprising, after seeing the Turkish Prime Minister turn against Assad, who is himself an Alawite. But the straw that broke the camel's back is the name of "Sultan Selim Yavuz" which Erdogan gave the third Bosporus bridge, who was responsible for the biggest massacre of Alevis in Asia Minor.

Certainly the Alevi problem is one of the biggest problems of modern Turkish identity and for many historians it goes back to the root of the general problems of the current identities of the inhabitants of Asia Minor. The prevalence of Islam in a place with a Greek Orthodox Christian background at times occupies modern Turkey and is another "link" in the chain of problems which create tremors in the modern Turkish establishment.

It is worth mentioning some of the key elements of the Alevis that make them stand out completely from Muslims and equate them more with Orthodox Christians:

1. Thier places of worship are called a cem (pronounced "jem") and not mosques. They consider the cem to be a mystical place, more like a Greek Orthodox church. In some of them, especially western Greek Thrace where the majority of Muslims were Bektashi, there existed (prior to Turkish propaganda) offerings and icons of the Panagia and Saint George whom they especially honor.

2. Their faith has a trinitarian character by a Christian standard and they refer to one triune God who consists of Allah, Muhammad and Ali.

3. In religious ceremonies, they drink wine and raki, which is scandalous to Sunnis.

4. They accept monasticism and have monastic orders. Their monasteries perfectly correspond with Orthodox monasteries as places of contemplation, asceticism and purity.

5. They have a ritual confession of repentance, called "Baş Okutma".

6. In their Houses of Worship they have depicted icons of Ali and other saints of theirs, which is also a scandal to classical Islam.

7. The women do not wear a veil and are considered equal to men as in Christianity, but contrary to classical Islam.

8. They have the equivalent of the Twelve Apostles, whom they call the Twelve Imams.

9. In their ceremonies they cross their hands in the style of the old Greek Orthodox typikon (as kept today in Russia), when with folded hands the faithful came forward for communion.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Read also:

“Alawi Identity in Syria,” M.A. Thesis by Torstein Worren

The "Lost Christians" of Asia Minor

The Four Crypto-Christian Neomartyrs: Emmanuel, Anezina, George and Maria

Holy New Martyrs Emmanuel, Anezina, George and Maria (Feast Day - July 14)

The New Martyrs of the faith, Emmanuel, Anezina and their children George and Maria, were cryptochristians and had the following Turkish names: the father was called “Ibraim Ibni Abdullach" and his wife was “Fatme Ibni Abdullach”, the daughter was called “Hatizie” and the son “Mustafa". Also the father, Emmanuel, was 40 years old, while his wife Anezina was 38, the son, George, was 18 and the daughter, Maria, was 16.

As Muslims, they lived in the village Melissourgio of Kissamos and worked peacefully out in their fields. One day a neighbor saw them cross themselves as they sat to eat and turned them in to the Turks. They were spied on again, where they were seen doing their cross before going to bed, and taken to court, which decided for them to be beheaded, because they did not deny any of that which they were accused of. Instead they boldly said: “We were born Christians and we will die Christians.” It is worth mentioning that after they were told the court decision, they were presented before the court again and were told that if they returned to the religion of Islam they would live. Yet again they refused the offer and chose Christ.

They were sentenced to death by decapitation and their bodies were thrown outside of the fortress in Hania, to be eaten by wild animals and vultures.

The only record found about the New Martyrs from Melissourgio of Kissamos is the decision of the court, which is translated below.

The Decision of the Court

There has appeared before myself, the sacred judge of Hania, Ishmael Haki Hafiz Ali Oglou of Melissourgio, the following complaint:

Eight years ago there appeared before the sacred judge of Kissamos Ibraim Ibni Abdullach "Manolis of George", who stated that he was a Christian, and his wife Fatme Ibni Abdullach "Maria", with a wish to become Muslims along with their children, a female and a male, of their own will.

With the above decision they became Muslim in accordance with their desire according to the rule of Sacred Law, and the parents received their sacred names, and their children were named Mustafa and Hatizie, and the four lived as Muslims, being regarded by the faithful as true Muslims.

Their neighbor, Moura Aga, saw them a month ago in the village of Plakalona of Kissamos, in the afternoon as they sat to eat, and before they began they did the cross of Christians. After eating they and their children did their cross and were followed. He came immediately and told me to persuade me to follow them together with Galip, Bahrin and Hasan, and we saw them with our eyes, while they were preparing to sleep on the threshing floor, that all four did their cross.

I brought the above witnesses and the four Higianets in order to be punished as the Sacred Law dictates. There is no God but Allah!

I ordered for the three witnesses to appear with the four Higianet unbelievers shackled with 86 okas in the neck and waist, and having questioned the faithful before the accused they were asked to apologize. The parents were between the ages of 38-40 and the children between 16-18, and they replied: “We were born Christians and we will die Christians.”

I asked them if they had become Turks, and they replied that they did only in their body and not in their soul, and they did not mean to deny Christ and venerate the prophet of God Muhammad, who a few years ago before all they appeared to falsely venerate. They sinned by the phrase.

They received the decision of the Sacred Law, according to Decision No. 28 Fetfan of the glorious Moutfi Seiroullach efendi and the stetements of the three faithful as well as the witness of the accused.

I condemn the four unbelievers Manolis of George age 40, George of Manolis age 18, Anezina of Constanti age 38, and Maria of Manoli age 16, to death by beheading, which will be conducted by the brave Corps of Jannisary of Hania above on the eastern side of the fortress Pehlivan within the week in the evening, and their stinking corpses are to be thrown outside the fortress in the dung heap (Hentek). Their property will go to Beitul Mal.

God knows the good

The Sacred Judge of Hania

Ishmael Haki

After the promulgation of the decision, and the accused having heard it, they were invited again before myself in shackles in order to repent and return to the religion of Islam, in order to save their present life and that of the future in heaven, and they replied again: “We were born Christians and we will die Christians.”

Number 67 of the enforceable judgment.

27th of the Lunar month Tzemaziel Ahir 1092 of Egira.

To the Most-brave Commander of Hania, Hussein Agan Tsaousin of the Corps of Jannisary 8 in Hania.

The carrying out of the above indictment took place, and the stinking corpses were eaten by crows and dogs.

(14 July 1861 - Christian chronology)

Apolytikion in the Third Tone

New Martyrs of Kissamos, you destroyed the error of Hagar, holding fast your Orthodox witness, let us joyfully praise Emmanuel, Anezina, George and Maria, and cry out to Christ Who glorified them, to grant unto us steadfast faith.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.