Acacius of Serres

Holy New Martyr Acacius of Serres, also called Acacius of Neochori, was born in 1792 in Neochori, today Asvestochori near Thessalonica, and was named Athanasius. In 1805 his parents moved to Serres, where they placed the nine-⁠year-⁠old as an apprentice to a shoemaker. His master's harsh treatment drove him to deny the faith to escape the suffering; two Turkish women also urged him to it, and the denial took place on a Great Friday.

His stepmother, who had fallen in love with him, invented a charge and had him driven out. Athanasius fled to Thessalonica, to his parents, who had left Serres when they heard of his denial. Following their advice, he went to Mount Athos, where, after staying in several monasteries, he settled in the Skete of Saint John the Forerunner of Iviron Monastery, a disciple first of the elder Nicephorus and then of the elder Acacius. There he was tonsured a monk and received the name Acacius, preparing for martyrdom as his elder had done with the venerable Euthymius and Ignatius.

On 10 April he set out for Constantinople with the monk Gregory, and they reached it on 24 April. Before stepping onto the path of martyrdom he wrote his spiritual father a farewell letter full of joy. On Saturday 29 April, after receiving Holy Communion, he put on Turkish dress and appeared before the judges, confessing that he was returning to the faith of his fathers. He was thrown into prison, where he was tempted first with flattery and promises and then with torments.

In the end he was put to the sword in 1816, at the place called Daktyloporta. On the third day the monk Gregory ransomed the holy body. Acacius is commemorated on 1 May together with Euthymius of the Peloponnese and Ignatius the New, venerable new martyrs of the Holy Mountain.