Auxentius of Constantinople

Holy New Martyr Auxentius of Constantinople was born in 1690 in the diocese of Vellas, in Epirus, in the metropolis of Ioannina. As a young man he moved to Constantinople with his parents and worked as a furrier. Later he left the trade and took work on ships, leading a sinful life. His Turkish shipmates, in jest, claimed that he had denied Christ and become a Muslim; fearing they would go to the captain, he left the ship and returned to the city.

He bought a small boat and lived from it. Regretting his earlier life, he began to desire martyrdom. One day a monk, Father Gregory of Xeropotamou Monastery on Athos, boarded his boat, and Auxentius confessed his wish to him. The monk praised it but urged caution, lest he weaken under torture, and advised him to withdraw to a quiet place. Auxentius took the advice, kept working with his boat, gave most of his earnings to the poor and lived as an ascetic. He often prayed at the church of the Life-⁠Giving Spring, asking for strength to be a martyr.

Then he went back to his old ship, where his former companions began to beat him and dragged him before the kadi, saying that he had become a Muslim and then returned to Christianity. Auxentius answered: "I was and am an Orthodox Christian; I am ready to suffer a thousand tortures for Christ." They beat him with an iron bar, and the saint lost an eye and some teeth, but he stood firm. Father Gregory visited him in prison and brought him Holy Communion. Brought before the vizier, who urged him to respect Islam, Auxentius refused and even urged the vizier to become a Christian. Enraged, the vizier sentenced him to death.

After praying for all Orthodox Christians and for the world, he was beheaded on 25 January 1720. Two days later Christians and Muslims saw a heavenly light shining on the martyr's body. The sultan's tailor, an Orthodox Christian named Michael, asked the sultan for the body, and Patriarch Jeremiah III accompanied it to the church of the Life-⁠Giving Spring, where it was buried. Two years later, when the relics were exhumed, a sweet fragrance came from them. The saint's head is kept at Xeropotamou Monastery on Athos. He is commemorated on 25 January (new style; 7 February on the old calendar).