Saint Manuel of Sfakia, March 15

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

Πρόβατον ώσπερ σφαγιασθείς παμμάκαρ,

Mάνδρα προσήχθης ω Mανουήλ τη άνω.

Saint Manuel was a neomartyr originally from Sfakia, Crete. Refusing to change his faith, he was beheaded by the Turks in the year 1792.

He was born in the village of Kallikratis in Sfakia and as a small child he was taken by the Turks, who forcibly made him a Muslim. Once he realized what had happened, now a young man, he managed to escape. He went to Mykonos, where he married and had 6 children and lived a Christian life with the fear of God. But his wife betrayed him and he took his children and without accusing her he settled in another house. However, his wife's brother betrayed him to the Turks out of hatred, who arrested him, brought him to the Pasha of Chios, and there he defiantly confessed his Christian faith. The Turks tortured him cruelly, but Manuel told them: "I prefer to die for my faith and save my soul, than to betray it and be in hell forever". It was March 15 of the year 1792, when blessed Manuel Sfakianos entered the choir of the New Martyrs.

Tradition

This new martyr was born in Sfakia, Crete, of pious parents. At an early age he was captured by the Turks, forcibly converted to Islam and then remained in their service. But he found the opportunity and escaped from the house of his masters, and went to Mykonos, where he confessed and lived with Christian dignity.

There he married and had six children. But because his wife betrayed her conjugal honor, he moved with his six children to another house without excommunicating her. But the brother of his unfaithful wife, who served in the Turkish fleet, denounced Manuel to the Turkish captain that, while he had become a Muslim, he returned to the Christian religion.

When he was arrested by the Turkish captain, Manuel courageously confessed his faith in Christ. After much torture, he was handed over to the Turkish Admiral Kucuk, who was in Chios. He interrogated him and issued a death sentence. So the Admiral's servants took Manuel and led him to the place of execution, which was called Palaia Vrysi. And while the martyr bowed his head, the executioner, who was appointed to execute him, became afraid, threw down his sword, and went away. Then a non-commissioned officer seized the sword, who, after several blows on the martyr's neck, could not decapitate him, threw him down and slaughtered him in the most horrible manner like a sheep.

All this took place in Chios, on March 15, 1792 AD, on Monday at four o'clock in the afternoon. And his honest relic, the Turks, after tying it with boulders, threw it into the sea. A handwritten martyrdom of this Saint is in the library of the Xenophon Monastery of Mount Athos.