The Holy Twenty-six Venerable Martyrs of Zographou (+1284)
The holy twenty-six venerable martyrs of Zographou. In 1274, at the Council of Lyons, the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus resolved to strengthen his state, which stood on the brink of ruin, by a union of faith with Catholic Rome. This step provoked general discontent in Byzantium. The monks of the Holy Mountain of Athos too rose to defend the purity of the faith. They sent the emperor a letter in which they set out with reasons that one may not regard the Pope as the head of the Church, use unleavened bread in the Eucharist, or alter the Orthodox Creed, and they called on the emperor to come to his senses. “We see clearly,” they wrote, “that you are a heretic, but we beseech you: abandon all this and return to the teaching that you received.”
Michael Palaeologus asked the Pope for military help. The crusaders who entered the country burst into the peninsula of Athos, plundered it and laid it waste.
The invaders offered the monks of the Iveron lavra unity of faith and communion with them; the blessed fathers firmly refused, rebuked the lawless men and anathematised them. This drove the enemies of Christ into a fury. They threw the monks out of the house. Two hundred of them, the elders, were put aboard the monastery’s own ship and sunk together with it, while the others, the younger ones, were taken captive, sent to Italy together with the monastery’s property, stripped of their monastic habits and sold to the Jews.
The godless moved on to the monastery of Vatopedi. A silent witness of the merciless slaughter they carried out there is Furkovouni, that is, the Mountain of the Gallows, where the papists hanged the fathers faithful to the law.
In the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou the coming disaster was learned of beforehand. In this house’s vineyard, half an hour’s walk south-west of the monastery, there lived a monk. In his cell there stood an icon of the All-holy Mother of God, before which he burned incense every day and read the Akathist. Once, during his prayer, he heard a voice coming from the icon, which told him of the approach of the crusaders and commanded him to warn the brethren quickly. The monk found it hard to leave the icon, but the Queen of Heaven said to him: “Do not concern yourself with me; go quickly.” When the father drew near the house he was amazed: by a wonderful providence the icon had changed its place, arrived before him, and set itself over the monastery gate. When they heard of this miracle the brethren glorified the Lord with one accord. After this the abbot Thomas told them what disaster was drawing near, and said: “Whoever is not afraid and is ready for martyrdom, let him stay with me in the monastery; and you others, take the church vessels and go away from here until the wrath of the heretics has passed, so that you do not fall away from your faith and sin by blasphemy.” So those who feared torture took refuge in ravines, caves and mountain gorges, while the holy abbot with the rest of the monks shut himself up in the tower, not out of fear but to denounce the heresy.
The crusaders surrounded the monastery and demanded that the gates be opened. The Venerable Thomas answered: “Depart from us, ye workers of iniquity, for as the apostle saith: though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8); and then, citing Holy Scripture and the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, he exposed all the errors of the papists. The enraged Catholics plundered the house and set it on fire. Standing on the burning tower, the venerable fathers prayed, beseeching the Saviour to establish Orthodoxy and overthrow the heresy. When they finished their prayer a voice was heard from heaven: “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.” At the sound of this voice the tormentors were terrified, but they did not understand what had happened.
According to the Greek manuscripts kept in the Protaton (Karyes) and in the monasteries of Iveron and Vatopedi, the holy martyrs committed their souls to the Lord on 10 October 1280. There were twenty-six of them in all: twenty-two monks and four laymen. The names of the laymen have remained unknown to us, but the names of the monks have been preserved: Thomas, Barsanuphius, Cyril, Micah, Simon, Hilarion, James, Job, Cyprian, Sabbas, James, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Menas, Joseph, Joannicius, Paul, Anthony, Euthymius, Domentian and Parthenius. The last of them, the ecclesiarch Parthenius, fell from the burning tower. He lived for thirty days and told the brethren who came out of their hiding places what had happened.
The crusaders were not satisfied with this: after the destruction of Zographou they spread over the whole Holy Mountain and left their baleful mark in every corner of it. The commemoration of the venerable martyrs who suffered at that time is celebrated together with all the saints who shone forth on the Holy Mountain of Athos on the second Sunday after Pentecost. In addition, the commemoration of the venerable martyrs of Iveron is kept separately in the Iveron monastery (13 May), and that of the martyrs of Vatopedi at Vatopedi (4 January).
