Alexander of Thessaloniki

Holy New Martyr Alexander of Thessaloniki, called Alexander the Dervish, was born around 1710 and was beheaded at Smyrna on 26 May 1794, after returning to the Christian faith that he had abandoned.

He came from Thessalonica and lived in the district of Laodigia (today Laodigitria). While still very young he reached Smyrna, trying to escape the impure intentions of a Turk. For reasons the sources do not know, he denied the faith there and became a Muslim. Later he went to Mecca and entered the order of the dervishes.

Reproached by his conscience, he pretended to be mad and, in the guise of a dervish, travelled for eighteen years through the subject lands, sharply rebuking Turkish tyranny. Whenever he had the opportunity, he showed his faith in Christ through good deeds. While at Chios he attended without fear, in a Christian church, the services of Great Lent, still wearing his dervish clothes.

From Chios he went to Smyrna and presented himself to the city's judge, to whom he boldly confessed that he repented of his former state and was returning to Christianity; he took off his dervish clothes and trampled them underfoot. He was thrown into prison and brought out three times, to be won over by flattery and threats, but remained unmoved. At the place of execution he prayed on his knees, calm, before the furious crowd of Turks, Greeks, Franks and Armenians, and received death by beheading with joy on 26 May 1794.

Thessaloniki, his native city, honours him as a son of the city. He is commemorated on 26 May.