Saint Constantine of Smyrna
The fifteenth of June in the Orthodox Church is the feast-day of a New Martyr of Mount Athos and a working-class saint of the Church, Saint Constantine of Smyrna. One of several New Martyrs to have suffered under the Ottomans, Saint Constantine is rare in that, like Saint ’Ahmad the Calligrapher, he was martyred for having converted to Orthodoxy from his native faith, rather than as part of an ethnic persecution or a religious pogrom.
Saint Constantine was born during the late eighteenth century, to a poor Turkish mother; we do not know his birth name, only his baptismal one. He had two siblings: a brother and a sister; however, he grew up without a father. As a youth he suffered from smallpox which affected his sight; a kindly local Christian woman cured him by sprinkling his face with holy water from an Orthodox shrine. They lived in Smyrna, on the coast of Asia Minor, and from a young age he had to make a living selling fresh greens in the marketplace. Sometimes, it seems, he also sold on the streets outside, because he had occasion several times to visit the house of the local Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Kallinikos of Smyrna. Because the Metropolitan was kind to him, and often bought vegetables from him, the young Turkish lad would often stay in the house, and listen as guests visited the bishop and discussed with him and read the Scriptures and the lives of the saints. In this way, the boy – who had a natural intelligence and an active curiosity as most boys his age do – began to piece together and learn the precepts of the Orthodox faith. He also made several friends among the Greek community in Smyrna in the course of his visits, and he picked up the Greek language as well.
It so happened at one time, that he had a conversion experience – something he overheard or something he was told, ‘clicked’ with him, and he began to thirst strongly to hear the Gospel, to know Christ, and to be baptised in Christ. The boy having been born to a Turkish mother and having been Muslim all his life, the local Greek priests and even the Metropolitan were reluctant to baptise him. They knew all too well the fate that the harsh Ottoman law on religious communities had in store for them, if they tried. So instead of baptising him, and instead of trying to dissuade him, they urged him to seek baptism on the Holy Mountain.
The young man set out for the Mountain, and visited four monasteries there, each in turn. However, one after the other, they refused him baptism. What – a Greek monastery, baptise a Turk? Sadly, this sort of ethnic chauvinism persists even down to our day. Our young Turk was about to give up hope of putting on the new garment of Christ, and going home in dejection, when he decided to visit one last monastery on Mount Athos: Ivērōn Monastery on the northeast side of the island, which was built in the late 900s by two Georgian monks, Iōannēs (Tornikipos) and Euthymios. He went there to venerate an icon of the Theotokos they had there, and asked her for aid. Though the Liturgy there was served in Greek and all of the monks there were at that time also Greek, upon questioning the young man they were much better-disposed to him, and the Hegumen Gregorios V agreed to personally perform the baptism and welcome him into the Church. Abbot Gregorios christened him Constantine.
Saint Constantine lived at Mount Athos for several years afterward, as a novice at the Agios Triados Skete of Kafsokalivia under the spiritual fatherhood of Elder Gabriel. After some time at the monastery, the eager young Constantine wished to go back to visit his sister, and share the Gospel with her. At that time his sister was living in Magnesia (that is, modern-day Manisa), about 40 kilometres inland from Smyrna. He sought first the blessing of his spiritual father, who told Constantine to go to the other spiritual elders of Athos. He prayed with them, and they besought God, and ultimately they gave him their permission to go back. However, Saint Constantine never made it to Manisa and never got to see his sister. When he arrived at port – probably again in Smyrna – he was recognised at once and apprehended by the Turkish gendarmes. Being handed over to the qâḍî in charge of his case, it was soon discovered that Constantine had once been a Muslim and, by his own cheerful admission, had apostasised to Christianity among the Greeks. He was ordered to be beaten and cast into prison, to await the arrival of the regional governor or Paşa, who would judge him.
When the Paşa arrived, he made promises to Saint Constantine of great wealth and high honours if he would come back to Islâm and renounce Christ. Of course, Constantine refused, and affirmed once again his commitment to Christ and to the Faith he had learned at the house of the Metropolitan. The affronted Paşa ordered that Saint Constantine be subjected to falaka: a torture technique of foot-whipping which is still used as a corporal punishment in modern Turkey. When this failed to produce any result, Saint Constantine being as adamant as before, the Paşa handed him over to a ‘specialist’ executioner for additional tortures. Despite the incredible suffering he endured, even these tortures failed to work on Saint Constantine, who remained steadfast in the Faith.
The Paşa then sent Constantine – the workings of God are ironic – to Istanbul for sentencing, and while awaiting sentence he was subjected to penal servitude, confinement, and further falaka and other tortures. A priest of the Church in Constantinople, having heard about the young Turk who was under suspicion of being a Christian, came to visit him. He told Constantine that the Christians of the city would offer ransom and pay the guards a bribe to buy his freedom. However, Saint Constantine told the priest that he did not want to place such a burden upon his brother and sister Christians in Constantinople, and besides, that he was prepared to be martyred, the Holy Mother of God having herself appeared to him and told him of his impending execution. The following day the judge in Istanbul handed down the sentence to the apostate: death by hanging. The New Martyr of the Lord was hanged on the second of June (according to the Julian Calendar) of 1819. Holy New Martyr Constantine, confessor of the faith before the Ottomans, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion to the New Martyr Constantine, Tone 4:
A light-bearer has risen in the Church of Christ,
The memory of your contest has filled her with light,
Seal of the martyrs, Glorious Constantine;
Release from deceit the offspring of Hagar
And richly illumine the souls of the faithful,
Those who celebrate your memory, ever-blessed one.
No comments:
Post a Comment