July 24: Saint Neomartyr Theophilos of Zakynthos is celebratedtranslated

Today, July 24, the Church honors the memory of Saint Neomartyr Theophilos of Zakynthos and Saint Great Martyr Christina.

By LAMBROS K. SKONTZOU, Theologian - Professor

Saint Neomartyr Theophilos from Zakynthos The New Martyrs are one of the greatest chapters in the history of our Church. Those who confessed Christ and their faith in Orthodoxy and suffered martyrdom and death, from 1453 until today, are called Neomartyrs. Especially in the dark years of Turkish slavery, where enslaved Christians had to choose between violent Islamization and martyrdom. Thousands of Orthodox Christians were added to the millions of Martyrs of ancient and medieval times.

Saint Neomartys Theophilos is one of them. He was born in Zakynthos in 1615 from a poor family. We don't know much about his childhood. But we know the tyranny, the humiliations and the pressures to make the Orthodox Iptanisians renounce their faith and embrace the heretical papacy. Many experts argue that the ecclesiastical situation in the basements of the Venetian Ionian Islands was worse than the rest of Greece, where rudimentary...