Ambrosios

Holy New Martyr Ambrosios, a hieromonk of the Vatopaidi Monastery on the Holy Mountain, was killed at Heraklion in Crete on 22 June 1821, together with the hieromonk Neophytos and the monk Makarios. In 1820 Vatopaidi sent to Crete, at the request of the people, a group of brothers with relics to drive away the plague: a portion of the Holy Girdle of the Theotokos, a piece of the wood of the Holy Cross and the skull of Saint Andrew of Crete. After a fifteen-⁠day journey they reached Heraklion, where they performed services of the blessing of the water until Easter of 1821.

On 22 June 1821 clergy and laity had gathered at the Metropolis of Heraklion for fear of the Turks, after the Greeks revolted in many places. During the invasion of the Metropolis building clergymen and lay people were killed, among them the hieromonks Neophytos and Ambrosios and the monk Makarios. The hierodeacon Parthenios and the monks Dionysios and Dorotheos took the Girdle, the Cross and the skull of Saint Andrew and hid in the houses of hidden Christians. Dionysios was caught, was asked to renounce his faith, refused and was hanged on Clean Monday of 1822. The relics passed through many hands to Santorini, from where the abbot Dionysios of Vatopaidi brought them back to the monastery on 2 May 1831.

Saint Ambrosios is remembered on 22 June, by the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style), together with Neophytos and Makarios.