New Martyr
Catherine Routi
New Martyr of Athens
Mother of two, fatally wounded in 1927 at Mandra when she shielded the priest Christopher Psalidas with her body.
- Reposed
- 192720th century
- Place
- Athens
- Order
- Martyrs
Life
Catherine Routi (Routis) was a Greek woman of Mandra in Attica, born in 1901 and killed in 1927. She is honoured as a new martyr. She was married and had two children.
On 9 November 1927, at the church of the Holy Archangels in Mandra, during the night service, the police opened fire. Catherine covered with her own body the priest Christopher Psallidas, at whom the bullets were aimed, and was mortally wounded. She died at the Evangelismos hospital in Athens on 15 November 1927. She was buried at the Monastery of the Presentation of the Mother of God, where her head is kept as a relic.
Her memory is kept on the Sunday of All Saints. The event took place during the dispute over the calendar, and her veneration is linked above all to the Old Calendarists, who are outside communion with the Orthodox Church of Greece. We know of no canonization of her by the canonical Orthodox Churches.